Mother Rasputin: Greece’s Killer Nun
I am sure the name Mariam Soulakiotis doesn’t ring a bell for many people. But she is still one of Greece’s biggest serial killers. Known as Mother Rasputin, she advertised her monastery as a free treatment center for tuberculosis patients. Once a patient arrived however, they would be forced to sign over their property and other assest or risk punishment which could be seen as torture.
Mariam Soulakioris and Bishop Matthew
Not a lot is known about Mariam’s early life before she became a nun. She grew up about 50km south of Athens, with some sources claiming she was a factory working and others that she worked on her family’s farm. What we do know, is that she became a nun around the year 1900 for the Greek Orthodox Church and grew close to an Bishop named Matthew.
Matthew became an old calendrist when the Orthodox church adopted the new calender (which is still used today). This caused Mariam to follow the Bishop and they established a monastery together in 1927. The official reason for its creation was the honor Mother Mary, but it was soon made clear that the true reason was to offer support to those who followed Matthew and were old-calendrists.
Matthew was already 66 years old at that time and as years passed, Mariam took over more and more of his responsibilities. Soon, she was unofficially running the monstery until she became the Abbess in 1950 after Matthew’s health declined during WWII and led to his death.
The Investigation
The authorities first became interested in Mariam and her monastery after an anonymous complaint of a young woman. She had found out that her mother’s will had been changed to leave everything behind to Mariam. This was something that would never happen unless the woman would be forced to, claimed the daughter. Not much is known about the actions that were taken, or if any investigation had been started at all.
In 1949 however, the FBI got involved when an 18-years old Ohio-born greek woman went missing. Her father had contacted the authorities in a desperate attempt to find out what happened and they had traced her back to the monastery. According to the father, his daughter had been lured by a non name Mariam who had visited them in the US to collect property that had been left to the monastery.
On the night of December 4th, 1950, almost a hundred police officers raided the monastery on charges of illegal export of olive oil to Cyprus and the illegal import of tires. What they found, was much worse. Victims who were still alive, accused Mariam of torture, starvation, blackmail, and false imprisonment.
The authorities removed 37 children from the property, as well as a dozen half-naked older women who had been locked up, sick and starved.
The trial.
While the initial charges had to do with illegal import and export, the authorities could not ignore the claims made by the victims. However, joining a monastery was something done voluntarily and that made it harder for the prosecution to make a solid case against Mariam.
During the first trial during 1951 and 1952, Mariam received a sentence of 26 months on the charges of illegal import and export. But more witness statements were coming in and more evidence of the torture at the monastery came to light.
So a second and third trial date were set in 1953, where she was sentences to 10 years and an additional 4 years respectively. After the last trial, Mariam passed away before any more victims could gain their piece of closure. However, she was officially conviced of 7 murders:
Two couples were lured and forced into signing over their property before joining the monastery. One couple attempted to escape after finding out about the living conditions. Both couples died of starvation and being kept in rooms riddled with tuberculosis.
One woman came specifically to the monastery after hearing it was a free treatment center for tuberculosis. It was said that due to it’s location in high altitude, the fresh oxygen would help cure the illness. When this woman arrived, she was locked into a room without any medical assistance or supervison. She died due to her illness and starvation.
Lastly, two nuns were beaten to death as punishment for disobeying Mariam’s orders and misconduct.
All throughout the trial, Mariam maintained her innocence and called the case ‘Satanic Fiction’. Documents show however that over 500 people signed over their property and later died on the monastery grounds.
After Mariam’s death, there was a protest organised by her followers maintaining her innocence. Her followers had to go underground however, due to their believes being outlawed by the government. It is not clear if they kept up Mariam’s ‘operations’, but there are reports of multiple woman vanishing from the area in the years after Mariam’s death.
To this day, the monastery is still open to the public and in use. The nuns who live there weren’t there during these troubling period in time, however they too hold onto the believe that Mother Rasputin was innocent and only wanted to help the sick and old. For what she has done, they hail her a saint.
