It’s not unusual for men who tread the path of God and spirituality to abstain from women. But the situation becomes bizarre when a man spends 82 years on earth without ever coming into contact with the sex that represents more than half the human race. This is the story of Mihailo Tolotos, who died as a monk without ever seeing a real woman in his lifetime.

Baby Mihailo was raised in one of the 20 monasteries of Mount Athos after his mother passed away.

When Mihailo Tolotos was born in 1856, his first point of contact with a woman should have been his mother. Unfortunately, he never saw her, as she passed away soon after giving birth to him.

With no kin to take care of baby Mihailo, he was brought to Mount Athos, a narrow strip of rocky peninsula in Central Macedonia in northern Greece. With 20 towering monasteries, the place has been the spiritual capital of the Orthodox Church since 1054.

The primary habitants of Mount Athos are monks who live in seclusion from the world, never leaving the area, not even to attend the funerals of their loved ones.

Keeping with the traditions of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the monks here practice celibacy. As Women pose a threat to their way of life, they have been banned on Mount Athos for more than a thousand years. In fact, they are not allowed within 500 meters of the coast.

Like other monks of Athos, Mihailo Tolotos lived in seclusion and had no access to radio, television, or newspapers.

With the imposed ban, Mihailo Tolotos grew up and lived as a monk on Mount Athos with no women around.

He never saw a real woman, and the probability of him knowing what a woman looked like was very limited as radios, television, and newspapers were privileges not permitted for the monks of Mount Athos.

The closest Mihailo Tolotos would have come to a female form are the figures in the historic wall paintings that the monasteries proudly preserve.

Therefore, when he died in 1932 at the age of 82, newspapers described him as “the monk who never saw a woman.”

Mount Athos does not allow domestic animals of the female sex inside its 330 sq km property.

Barring a section of society from entering a region based on their gender is a provocative move. However, ensuring the celibacy of the monks is not the only reason behind the female ban.

According to Orthodox Church traditions, the Virgin Mary once sailed to Cyprus, but she was blown off course and landed on the coast of Mount Athos. The beautiful mountain charmed her, and she prayed to God, asking for the land to be hers.

Her wish was granted, and Athos has ever since belonged to her. According to believers, the Virgin Mary is the only one who can represent the female sex there.

At the risk of taking away her title, the female ban also applies to domestic animals, with a special exemption for cats as they help control the rodent population.

Despite the ban, women, disguised as men, have sometimes trespassed on the 330 sq km property.

The most famous of them all is Maria Pimenidou of Greece. In 1953, masquerading as a man, she stayed for three days at the monastery. This incident led Greece to pass a law that punished violators with up to 12 months of imprisonment.

Mihailo Tolotos lived his entire life on a world heritage site that also serves as a conservatory of wall paintings with immense historical value.

Though Mount Athos is mostly known for probably being the largest place on earth where women are not allowed, it is also on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites.

The monasteries, which rise like medieval fortresses, are also conservatories for monumental wall paintings, with the ones at Protaton Church dating back to the 13th century.

In present times, the monastery is inhabited by around 1,400 to 2,000 monks who live in seclusion from the world and its women. They grow and cook their own food, work on renovating and cleaning the monasteries, and do every other task that needs to be done to keep the place running.

Just like their lives, their clocks are unsynchronized from the world. It’s the only community on earth that measures time according to the standards of the Byzantine Empire. Their new day starts at sunset, resulting in a six-hour time difference.

The monasteries also welcome 100 orthodox and 10 non-orthodox male pilgrims daily for a three-day stay. One would assume this is an opportunity for the monks to connect to the outside world, except they don’t like being bothered at all by pilgrims.