 Some researchers explain this bizarre habit by the influence of his close friend Osip Senkovsky, a master of literary mystifications, but Devitte was doing this, apparently, not for mirth.In his early teens, under the influence of Thomas à Kempis, in particular "The Imitation of Christ", Devitte (whom some contemporaries seriously considered a 'messenger of God', bestowed with paranormal artistic gifts) decided that if he had any right to make use of his extraordinary talents, then only as tools for 'serving the mankind', and 'helping those in need', while remaining as anonymous as possible, according to Elena and Valery Ukolovs, his biographers.Soon after Devitte's death his name in Russia was forgotten.