A man who was adopted and raised by Orthodox monks in Greece spent almost his entire life without ever seeing a woman in person. It sounds unimaginable, but for Mihailio Totolos, this was his everyday reality, and he never knew any different.
Imagine going your entire life without seeing or interacting with the opposite gender. For many, it might seem like something out of a novel, but for Totolos, it was simply life as he knew it.
Born in Halkidiki, Greece, Totolos knew women existed only through conversations with his fellow monks and what he read in books.
Although he came into the world around 1856, Totolos never had the chance to know his mother. Tragically, she passed away shortly after his birth, leaving him orphaned and without any immediate family to care for him.
After his mother’s death, he was taken in by a group of Orthodox monks in Greece and brought to a secluded monastery on Mount Athos, where he spent the rest of his life.
Totolos lived according to the monastery’s strict rules, one of which banned women from entering the premises under any circumstances. This rule had been in place for centuries. Although Totolos technically could have left the monastery and seen the outside world, he chose never to do so.
As a result, he never actually encountered a woman in real life, learning only through books and stories told by others. Half of the world’s population remained a mystery to him, leaving him to imagine what women might look, sound, and act like—a truly unique experience.
Seemingly without curiosity about what lay beyond the monastery’s walls, Totolos continued this way of life until 1938, when he passed away at the age of 82.
After his death, the monks of Mount Athos held a special burial ceremony, honoring him. They believed that he might have been the only man to have lived his entire life without ever knowing what a woman looked like.
Later, a newspaper article commemorated Totolos, noting that women were not the only things he never encountered. In his 82 years, Totolos had also never ridden in a car, watched a film in a theater, or seen an airplane in the sky.
In today’s world, with technology and media everywhere, it’s hard to imagine anyone else experiencing life like Mihailo Totolos did. What a curious and rare story.
