Answer:
To many in the upper class Russian Imperial Society of the early 1900s, Grigori Rasputin was indeed a saint, a prophet, a healer, a starets and a holy man of true faith. This included Tsarina Alexandra Romanov who was persuaded after he supposedly healed her only son Alexei from one of his bleeding fits - a result of the prince's inhertied haemophilia.
Although he was indeed a peasent monk who hailed from a small, remote village in Siberia, it is likely he conned and muddled his way into the inner circles of Russia's weathly elite for his own personal gain and benefit and he possessed no power at all.