Conversation so far:
What was the Rise to prominence for Grigori Rasputin?
Word of Grigori Rasputin's activity and charisma began to spread in Siberia during the early 1900s. Sometime between 1902 and 1904, he travelled to the city of Kazan.
What did he do in Kazan?
Grigori Rasputin travelled to the city of Kazan on the Volga river, where he acquired a reputation as a wise and perceptive starets, or holy man.

Question: How did others perceive him?
Self-contained rewrite: How did others perceive Grigori Rasputin?