Behind the sacred walls of her monastery, Mariam Soulakiotis hid a reign of terror where faith became a weapon and devotion turned deadly.
A Saint or a Sadist?
To the devout followers who sought salvation in her monastery, Mariam Soulakiotis was the “Nun of the Angels.” She presented herself as a humble servant of God, a spiritual guide who promised her disciples redemption through faith, fasting, and prayer. But beneath the veil of piety, Soulakiotis’s story was one of greed, control, and cruelty. By the time the truth came to light in the mid-20th century, she was no saint she was Greece’s most notorious religious criminal.
Her rise from a poor village girl to the self-proclaimed “Abbess of the Angels” remains one of the most chilling tales of religious manipulation in modern history. For decades, she built a religious empire founded on fear, secrecy, and submission and when authorities finally intervened, they uncovered a world of forced labor, torture, and death cloaked in the name of divine salvation.
The Making of a False Prophet
Mariam Soulakiotis was born in 1900 in Greece, a nation still wrestling with poverty, superstition, and post-war turmoil. Religion was the backbone of Greek life, and the Orthodox Church held immense influence over everyday citizens. Within this environment, charismatic figures like Soulakiotis could easily command attention and authority.
Her early life was marked by hardship, but she found solace and power, in religion. She became a nun at a young age, and her intense devotion and commanding presence soon drew followers. However, Soulakiotis was not content with merely serving the Church; she wanted to rule it. In the 1920s, she aligned herself with Matthew Karpathakis, a defrocked priest and founder of the Old Calendarist movement, a splinter sect that broke away from the main Orthodox Church in protest of the revised calendar introduced in 1924. Together, they claimed to represent the “true” Orthodox faith.
When Karpathakis died, Soulakiotis took over leadership of the sect and its monastery at Keratea, transforming it into a fortress of fanaticism. Her followers believed she could perform miracles and speak directly to God. But inside her walls, devotion was twisted into submission and salvation came at a brutal cost.
Inside the Monastery of Terror
To outsiders, Soulakiotis’s monastery appeared to be a sanctuary for women seeking spiritual guidance. In reality, it functioned more like a cult compound. She demanded absolute obedience and cut off her followers from their families, possessions, and the outside world. Many of them were widows or women from wealthy families, whose assets were quickly “donated” to the monastery in the name of faith. Soulakiotis became rich while her followers starved.
Life inside the monastery was governed by fear. The abbess enforced strict fasting, relentless prayer, and hard labor from dawn until nightfall. Any disobedience, even a whispered doubt, could result in severe punishment. Witnesses later described beatings, starvation, and confinement as routine methods of “spiritual purification.”
Survivors recounted that Soulakiotis wielded her authority like a weapon, convincing her disciples that suffering was a divine path to redemption. She manipulated their guilt and fear of sin, turning their faith into a form of bondage. Some believed she had mystical powers; others were too terrified to resist.
The “Nun of the Angels” and Her Victims
As the years passed, Soulakiotis’s following grew. She became a figure of fascination and dread in Greek society. Her monastery continued to attract new members, many of them elderly or sick, who were promised peace and protection. Instead, they were stripped of their wealth and subjected to inhumane treatment.
The monastery’s isolation allowed Soulakiotis to operate unchecked. Locals whispered about screams echoing from behind the walls, but the Church, wary of political backlash, hesitated to act. For decades, she evaded scrutiny, bolstered by the blind devotion of her followers and the complacency of the authorities.
By the 1950s, however, rumors of deaths began to surface. Families who had entrusted loved ones to Soulakiotis started asking questions when letters went unanswered and visits were denied. When investigators finally entered the monastery, what they found shocked the nation.
Discovery of the Horrors
In 1951, after mounting public pressure, Greek authorities raided the monastery. What they uncovered was a grim tableau of suffering. Emaciated nuns, locked rooms, and shallow graves painted a picture of spiritual tyranny that defied comprehension. During her reign at a Greek monastery, Mariam Soulakiotis was found guilty of seven premeditated murders and over 100 counts of negligent homicide. The total number of victims is debated among historians, but estimates range from 27 to 177 people, and some reports suggest it could be over 500.
Testimonies revealed that Soulakiotis personally participated in acts of violence. She believed physical pain cleansed the soul and would strike followers with sticks or ropes during “disciplinary rituals.” Some victims were forced to stand for hours in freezing conditions or to dig graves for their fellow sisters. She controlled every aspect of their lives, food, sleep, prayer, even thought.
The investigation revealed that Soulakiotis had embezzled massive sums of money and property from her victims’ estates, accumulating wealth under the guise of charity. What was meant to be a sanctuary of salvation had become a house of suffering and death.
Trial of a “Holy” Criminal
Mariam Soulakiotis was arrested and charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, fraud, and abuse. Her trial became one of the most sensational in Greek history. Newspapers called her “The Female Rasputin,” comparing her to the infamous Russian mystic who wielded power through manipulation and deceit. The courtroom overflowed with journalists, former nuns, and the families of the dead.
During her trial, Soulakiotis remained unrepentant. She claimed she had acted under divine instruction and that her followers’ suffering was “the will of God.” Her charisma, once a tool of control, now appeared as cold arrogance. Witnesses described scenes of horror: women beaten for speaking out of turn, elderly followers denied medical care, and others forced to sign over their assets before dying.
The prosecution portrayed her as a master manipulator who weaponized faith to exploit and destroy those who trusted her most. Ultimately, the court found her guilty, and she was sentenced to prison, though her punishment could never match the scale of her crimes.
Life After Conviction
Even behind bars, Soulakiotis maintained her air of sanctity. Some of her former followers continued to visit her in prison, convinced she had been persecuted for her holiness. To them, she was a martyr, a woman punished for defending the true faith against modern corruption.
She died in prison in 1954, reportedly after a period of declining health. Yet her death did not erase her influence entirely. For years afterward, remnants of her sect continued to operate, echoing her twisted doctrines of obedience and self-denial. Her story became a cautionary tale in Greece, a dark reminder of how easily spiritual authority can become a mask for tyranny.
Faith as a Weapon
The story of Mariam Soulakiotis forces us to confront uncomfortable questions about power, belief, and vulnerability. How could so many intelligent, devout people fall under her spell? The answer lies in the psychological mechanisms of cult behavior, mechanisms still evident today in groups that exploit faith, fear, or ideology for control.
Soulakiotis created an environment of dependency. Her followers were isolated from the outside world, taught to distrust outsiders, and conditioned to equate suffering with holiness. This combination of isolation, emotional manipulation, and religious justification is the hallmark of many cults. Once faith becomes intertwined with fear, the line between devotion and domination disappears.
Moreover, her crimes highlight the darker side of institutional religion, how the structures meant to protect believers can sometimes enable abuse. The Church’s reluctance to confront her early on allowed her cruelty to flourish unchecked. Her manipulation of religious rhetoric not only destroyed lives but also tarnished the faith she claimed to uphold.
A Legacy of Fear and Fascination
Today, Mariam Soulakiotis’s name is still invoked in Greece as a symbol of religious extremism gone awry. Her story has inspired documentaries, newspaper retrospectives, and even academic studies on cult psychology and religious abuse. In many ways, she represents a uniquely Greek tragedy, one in which faith and fanaticism became indistinguishable.
Historians often compare her to other cult leaders like Jim Jones or Elizabeth Bathory, figures who cloaked their sadism in spiritual or moral righteousness. Yet Soulakiotis’s case is especially chilling because it unfolded within the boundaries of an established religion, not a fringe movement. Her ability to masquerade as a devout nun while committing acts of cruelty underscores how manipulation can thrive under even the most sacred institutions.
Lessons from a Monastery of Shadows
The downfall of Mariam Soulakiotis is more than a historical scandal; it is a timeless warning. Blind faith, when coupled with unchecked authority, can transform sanctity into suffering. Her monastery began as a refuge for the faithful but became a prison for the powerless. The women who entered seeking peace were instead consumed by the very devotion that was meant to save them.
In modern times, her story resonates beyond religion. It speaks to the dangers of charisma without accountability, leadership without empathy, and belief without question. Whether in politics, media, or spiritual life, figures who claim absolute truth can easily become tyrants.
