The life and patience of the reverend father of our Abraham, enlightened in much patience, a new miracle worker among the saints of the city of Smolensk.

The faithful and pious parents of Abraham have twelve daughters, but they pray to God to give them a son, which is done according to God's providence. When, on the eighth day after the birth of a child, they take him to church to give him a name, the presbyter with the eyes of his heart sees that this child will devote himself to God. In adolescence, Abraham zealously studies and loves to listen to church singing, and in his youth, his favorite readings are the lives of saints and inspired books. When his parents die, leaving him a great inheritance, he gives out all the wealth to the poor, widows and orphans in order to renounce earthly goods and betray himself to God alone. He leaves the city in a place called Selishche, and is tonsured a monk in the monastery of the Holy Virgin. From books he most of all loves to read the teachings of Ephraim the Syrian and John Chrysostom and spends days and nights in constant wakefulness, fasting and prayer.

The abbot, seeing his humility and zeal, tests him and forces Abraham to take the priesthood. Abraham performs the Divine Liturgy without missing a single day, and many people from the city where he was born and raised come to listen to him. However, the devil, who sees that sinners under the influence of Abraham repent, decides to destroy him, taking advantage of the differences among priests and monks, for some consider him a righteous man, while others are afraid to lose their influence on the flock due to the spread of the teachings of Abraham. The abbot himself was misled, and he excommunicated Abraham and forbade him to teach the people.

Abraham returns to the city and lives in the monastery of the Holy Cross. But there flock to people who are eager to hear Abraham, for he could interpret the Scriptures in such a way that even the darkest and most ignorant ones understand everything that was said to them. The enemy of the human race, shamed by the power of faith of Abraham and his humility, appears to him night and day in various frightening images, tormenting and beating him. Entering the hearts of the wanton, the devil inspires them with hatred for Abraham, and many priests and abbesses, at the instigation of the enemy, begin to slander the blessed one, calling him a heretic and a harlot.

Abraham is seized and taken to the court, but God softens the heart of the rulers, and they find no fault in him. However, the accusers of Abraham continue to insult him, and the bishop, to remove him from the city and stop the strife, sends him to the monastery in which Abraham was tonsured a monk, but forbids serving the divine liturgy. They didn’t let anyone in to Abraham and even put up guards. Then blessed Lazarus, who was then still a priest, comes to Bishop Ignatius and tells him that the city will be struck by a great misfortune if he and all who persecuted Abraham do not repent. Blessed Ignatius hears the advice of Lazarus and forbids the reproach and insult of Abraham.

The foretold by blessed Lazarus comes true: the earth dries up, and the gardens, and the fields and not a drop of rain fall from the sky. Blessed Ignatius with God-fearing Abbots and clergy, as well as all the inhabitants of the city, pray to God to have mercy on his people and send rain to the earth.

But the drought continues. Then one priest, to whom God put the thought of Abraham in his heart, comes to Bishop Ignatius and asks him if, because of persecution of Abraham, God punished them with drought? The bishop calls Abraham to him and, having found out that all the accusations made against him, are false, removes the ban on the Divine Liturgy from him and asks Abraham to pray to God for salvation from the drought. Through the prayer of Abraham, God immediately sends rain to the earth. Blessed Ignatius appoints Abraham the hegumen of the newly founded monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and people again come to him for advice and teachings, and many ask him monks in the monastery. However, Abraham, knowing the hardships and temptations of monastic life, does not take everyone and for a long time experiences someone who wants to become his novice.

So for fifty years - until his death - Abraham remains in a feat, thinking from his youth only one thing: how to please our Lord Jesus Christ.