He Underwent a Radical Religious Transformation
In his late twenties, Rasputin had a religious conversion experience and left his village to go on a pilgrimage after seeing a vision of either the Virgin Mary or the Russian Saint Simeon of Verkhotyure, patron saint of the Urals. Other sources have it that Rasputin actually went on the lam, and had left to escape arrest and criminal prosecution for horse theft.
Whether his motives were sincere or cynical, at around age 28, Rasputin had some crisis, and whether driven by spiritual or more earthly causes, he made drastic life changes. In 1897, after ten years of marriage, he left home and went on a pilgrimage to the St. Nicholas Monastery at Verkhotyure, leaving behind an infant son and a pregnant wife heavy with another child.
He stayed at the monastery for months, during which he learned the basics of reading and writing. During that period, he also met and was strongly influenced by a local starets – an elder of the Russian Orthodox Church, venerated as a religious teacher and advisor. However, he would later criticize monastic life as too strict, and complained of rampant homosexuality between the monks.
Be that as it may, by the time he returned home, Rasputin was a changed man. He stopped drinking and turned teetotaler, became a vegetarian, and engaged in passionate displays of religiosity such as fervent praying and singing. He also took on the disheveled appearance of a strannik – a Russian holy wanderer or pilgrim, which is what Rasputin became.
