Page "Grigori Rasputin" Paragraph 8

Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Tsarevich Alexei's illness.

It was not publicly known in 1904 that Alexei had haemophilia, a disease that was widespread among European royalty descended from the British Queen Victoria, who was Alexei's great-grandmother.

When doctors could not help Alexei, the Tsarina looked everywhere for help, ultimately turning to her best friend, Anna Vyrubova, to secure the help of the charismatic peasant healer Rasputin in 1905.

He was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer and was indeed able to give the boy some relief, in spite of the doctors ' prediction that he would die.

Every time the boy had an injury which caused him internal or external bleeding, the Tsarina called on Rasputin, and the Tsarevich subsequently got better.

This made it appear that Rasputin was effectively healing him.