ty to calm and heal farm animals. He also possessed the powers of clairvoyance at an early age. He could judge a man's motives and character with just a glance into his eyes. On one described occasion in his childhood, Rasputin was in bed with a fever, when he envisioned the face of a man stealing a horse. Rasputin identified the man, who was a rich and prominent villager, and though the man denied the accusation, it was later proven that he was the thief. These small accomplishments of his youth, along with the teachings he received at the Monastery of Verkhotourie, provoked Rasputin to speak with the holy hermit Makari. Makari informed him that God had some large tasks for him to overcome, and that he must travel abroad to sacred sites to enrich his knowledge of the divine. He spent many years of his life wandering as far as Mt. Athos in Greece, walking twenty-five to thirty miles a day with little or no sustenance, searching for enlightenment.(Kwapien 1-2). While traveling abroad, Rasputin was introduced to some of the remaining heretical sects of the Old Believers. During this time, thousands of Old Believers were persecuted by the Patriarch Nikon, as he attempted to cleanse Russia of these sects and enforce Orthodox Christianity. Those who escaped fled to Siberia and continued to establish churches and communities. Nikon's rapid persecution of these sects weakened the Orthodox Church and gave rise to groups such as the Khlysty, which Rasputin is said to have taken part in. Their secret rites were extremely sexual and orgiastic in nature, and it was believed that through sexual sin, one could gain repentance. It has been said that Rasputin strengthened his powers through sexual acts performed while taking part in the Khlysty.(Kwapien 1-2). Rasputin's greatest feat in spiritual healing was the aid he provided the Tsarevitch Aleksei, a hemophiliac, in 1912. Aleksei had inherited the blood disorder from his mother, Alexan...
