Republic of the Monks

In this episode of Compendium Trivia, we travel to Greece, where a monk-controlled enclave quietly rivals the Vatican!

🏔️ Welcome to Mount Athos — a place where:
🕵️‍♂️ Russian spy games might be part of the daily prayers...
🎨 The monks once befriended an Austrian painter during WWII (yes, that one)
🚫 Women are banned — unless they know how to catch a mouse!

Curious yet?
Tune in now on your favorite podcast platform. Link in the comments!

Transcript

Did you know that the Vatican isn’t the only place in Europe where the Church runs the show?

There’s another one hidden in a remote corner of Greece.

It’s a land wrapped in mystery where time seems to have stopped somewhere around the Medieval Ages.

And if you believe the rumors it’s doubling as a top-secret Russian spy base.

Welcome to Mount Athos: a slice of Greece ruled by the monks and where being a lady may land you in prison.

Let’s explore.

What is Mount Athos:

Ok , so what exactly is Mount Athos?

It is a community of 20 Orthodox Christian monasteries completed with their own land, rules, and no-girls-allowed policy.

To find it on the map, head to northern Greece where you'll see the very distinctive Chalkidiki peninsula—it looks like a hand with three fingers and Mount Athos is the first one from the top. 

It’s pretty big, bigger than some European microstates like Malta or Lichtenstein.

If you look closely, you'll notice something very curious: there's a border line separating this territory from the rest of Greece.

So what does this all mean?

Mount Athos is an autonomous region within the Greek state — kind of like the Vatican.

I mean it’s not a separate country like the Vatican but it’s also a church territory completely surrounded by another country, so there are some clear similarities there. 

It’s also a part of the EU, and part of Schengen free movement Zone, but not for everyone due to this particular ban on Women's access. 

We’ll get to that rather unique travel restriction in a moment.
But first, let's rewind the centuries and talk about how this curious place came to be.

History:

It’s said that the first monks arrived to Athos peninsula as early as the 4th century. 

These early arrivals lived like hermits in caves, formed the very first monastic community but not in a very organized way yet. 

Things got more structured in the 10th century, when the first proper monastery was built.

With time more monks followed, and the importance of the community grew within the Orthodox world. 

Byzantine emperors based in Constantinople took Mount Athos under their patronage, began funding the community which allowed it to grow even more.

Other orthodox rulers didn’t want to be worse so they also started throwing cash at the monks.

This is the reason why today, apart from Greek monks, you’ve also got Serbian, Bulgarian and Russian ones on Mount Athos.

But here’s the twist—regardless of where the monks come from, once they enter the community, they are automatically granted Greek citizenship.

So , if you’ve ever dreamed of having an EU passport,  becoming a monk , on Mount Athos might be a good option to consider.

Back to the timeline - in the 14th century things started to go a bit south. 

For example Mount Athos was looted by the group of mercenaries coming from Catalonia.

They were originally hired by the Byzantines, then turned against them and started to fight their former bosses. 

Mount Athos got caught in this mess and took a serious hit.  

The damage that they experienced was so bad that, according to tradition, the monks banned people of Catalan origin from entering Mount Athos.

And apparently, the ban wasn’t lifted until the early 2000s—that’s how resentful they felt!

Things went further downhill when the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453.
Mount Athos came under Muslim rule, and although the Turks allowed the monks to stay, they imposed heavy taxes on them.

In the result the monks' coffers started running dry, and they had to ask for financial help—especially from the Russian tsars.

It looks that the monks were somewhat destined to be pimped by the emperor, if not the Byzantine, then the Russian one!

This arrangement lasted until the 19th century, when Greece finally regained its independence from the Ottomans.
Mount Athos came back under Greek control—a little poorer, with a few bruises here and there perhaps but still standing.

WWII Oddities:

Now fast-forward to World War II, and we get to one of the strangest episodes in the mount Athos history.
So listen to this - when Germany invaded Greece, the monks reached out to the Austrian painter who was running the country at the time. 

I am sure you know who I am talking about, prefer not to say his name to avoid getting de-ranked the by search algorithms.

They asked him for his personal protection, and to everyone's surprise—he actually agreed.

He was even declared a 'High Protector of the Holy Mountain' — a cute title that sounds like it’s straight out of a fantasy novel.

The monks apparently got along quite well with their new friends.

They hosted a German garrison in the territory and also welcomed a group of their scientists who came to study ancient treasures stored in the monasteries.

Monks were also openly cheering for the Germans in their fight against their former benefactor Russia. 

Talk about gratitude, right?

But in their defense, the religion wasn’t exactly welcome in Russia that time —so this change of heart wasn’t all that surprising.

Anyway , the alliance between the monks and the Nazis was a bit unconventional but against all odds, it actually worked. 

Mount Athos was spared during World War II—no bombs, no looting, just peaceful monastic life rolling on while the rest of Europe was in chaos.

Women ban:

Okay, let’s move on to the most controversial topic surrounding Mount Athos—the ban on women from entering its territory.

This is not just some outdated tradition someone forgot to update—it's an officially enforced rule, and according to Greek law you can get prison time for breaking it.

Interestingly, the restriction doesn't just apply to humans — it also applies to female animals but with some exceptions.
For instance birds and insects are excluded because, well, good luck at stopping them.

And also female cats are allowed because they prevent the mice from ruining the monks manuscripts collection! 

The origin of the ban comes from a legend involving the Virgin Mary, who travelled through the area and liked it so much that the God decided to give it to her exclusively—taking it away from all other women.

Slightly possessive I’d say but well, I guess when you’re the Mother of God, you can call dibs on a whole mountain!
At first this ban was just a tradition but then it was made legally official in the 11th century by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX.

The ban has always been very controversial, there have been protests, petitions, and even discussions in the European Parliament.
But the rule still stands and it looks like it’s not going away anytime soon.

Notable ban breakers:

Throughout history, there have been at least 12 known cases of women breaking the rule.
Let’s go over some of the most legendary ban breakers:

First up, a Serbian empress Helena who once entered Mount Athos to protect herself from a plague.

To keep the rule intact, she was reportedly carried in a hand carriage the entire time she spent there—never touching the Mount Athos land.

That makes me wonder how did she manage to use the toilet back then, but I suppose this will remain a monk's secret forever. 

Then there were the fame-seekers.
In 1930, Aliki Diplarakou, a Greek beauty queen, dressed as a man and managed to sneak in to the monastery.

But the award for dedication goes to Maryse Choisy, a French journalist. 

According to some accounts, she had a mastectomy (removal of breasts) to better disguise herself as a man and gain access to Mount Athos. 

Now that's some serious commitment to undercover journalism on her part!

Other scandals:

Aside from women sneaking in dressed as men, Mount Athos has had its share of other juicy scandals.

And if you were expecting the usual Church-related scandal involving sexual abuse—surprise! I couldn’t find any credible reports about that.

But there were some financial ones.
One monk was detained over allegations of fraud, after his monastery reportedly swapped valuable state-owned land for less valuable property held by the monks.
They say that the  Greek state lost around 100 million euros on this transaction.
It was a big national scandal in the country, it sparked something what you'd call a political earthquake.
After years of court drama, the monks were finally acquitted — maybe due to God’s support from heavens or maybe they just had better lawyers. 

There were also other rumours of money laundering, tax evasion, and shady offshore transactions— but nothing was ever proven conclusively.

Next up: Russian Controversy.

Mount Athos has been visited twice by Vladimir Putin and also by other high ranking Russian officials who probably enjoy a bit of spiritual recharge there between invading the next country. 

There were also reports of hefty bank transfers to Russian monks living on Mount Athos, believed to be an attempt to safely park money during the political turmoil following the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia.

The ties with Russian became so suspicious that there were whispers that the site was being used for Russian spy activities and propaganda efforts within the Orthodox Church.

Again, nothing was ever conclusively proven, but things got serious enough that in 2018, Greece expelled several Russian diplomats allegedly linked to these shady activities—so there was probably something to it.

Apparently although the monastery is a place of solitude the geopolitics still finds its ways to enter the community. 

Then there's the Conflict with Mount Athos official boss - the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is like a pope for Orthodox Christians.

The monks clashed with him over his relationship with the Catholic Church because the monks are really not big fans of interfaith dialogue.

The situation got so tense that at one point the Patriarch declared a group of monks schismatic and ordered them to pack up and leave Mount Athos. 

The monks refused and things escalated so much that in 2013 there was a stand-off , when monks barricaded themselves inside their monastery.

Greek authorities tried to evict them like physically, but gave up eventually. 
To this day, the dispute remains unresolved and the monks and the patriarch are still at odds. 

So there you have it—a glimpse of Mount Athos in a nutshell.

This is a place like no other  — a real time capsule, very mysterious with those unique rules, traditions and stuff. 

In this episode, we’ve only skimmed the surface.

I encourage you to dive deeper into the history of Mount Athos or even visit it during your next Greek voyage.

Unless you’re a woman, in which case, you'll have to settle for a Google Earth tour.

Thanks for joining me on this curious trip to the Holy Mountain. 

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Stay tuned for the next story, I’ll see you soon ciao!