He engaged in extensive preaching and biblical studies and is viewed as a notable figure in the pre-Mongol Russia.

[1] Abraham was said to be born either in 1150 or 1172 to nobles; he was orphaned in his childhood and then decided to abandon his fortune to pursue the austere and poor religious life.

[1] This tension led to several moral and theological charges being brought against him and it led to the local bishop taking action against him which cast a cloud over his character for some time and an order for him to stop preaching.

The bishop later reopened the case against him and acquitted him against the charges leveled against him while making him the abbot of the smaller and impoverished convent of the Mother of God in the area.

The Russian Orthodox Church canonized him as a saint at the 1549 Makaryev Sobors.