15. Winning Over the Imperial Family’s Confessor
Rasputin gained the Kazan locals’ confidence, then used them as stepping stones to bigger and better things. He finagled a letter of introduction and recommendation to Bishop Sergei, rector of a seminary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Russia’s capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1904, Kazan’s authorities paid Rasputin’s travel expenses to St. Petersburg, where he met and impressed Bishop Sergei. The bishop in turn introduced the strannik to other influential Russian religious figures. They included an Archimandrite (head of a group of a monasteries) Theofan, who was well connected in Russian high society, and who became the Tsar’s and Tsarina’s confessor. Theofan was so impressed by Rasputin that he invited him to live in his home, and became one of his greatest boosters.
