He graduated from Alexander Nevsky religious school and from the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary, where he befriended the future writer Nikolai Pomyalovsky.

After graduating from the seminary, Blagoveshchensky was apprenticed to the Archimandrite Porfiry, a famous archaeologist and orientalist, and went with him to Mount Athos and Jerusalem, where he stayed for nearly two years (1858-1859), recording his travelling experiences in notes and drawings.

The first printed works of Blagoveshchensky were stories written in the wake of the journey: From the Memoirs of a Season at Jerusalem, In Thessaly and November.

So, Part II (In the Capital, В столице, 1866) was promptly banned (for "graphically depicting the inner life of a religious sect") and the magazine received a 6 months suspension.

Later, while being treated for his paralytic condition at the Caucasian Mineral Waters, he made friends with Count Loris-Melikov, at the invitation of whom he stayed in Vladikavkaz.