This enclave, considered by Orthodox Christians to be the Garden of the Virgin Mary, houses about twenty monasteries and maintains a special legal regime known as ‘ávaton’ that admits only men ...

On a rugged peninsula in northern Greece lies one of Europe's most unusual and secluded places. Known as Mount Athos, or the Holy Mountain, this autonomous monastic community has barred women from ...

As one monk says, "If women were to come here, two-thirds of us would go off with them and get married." A monk cuts his ties from his mother but gains another: the Holy Virgin Mary (who, legend has ...

MOUNT ATHOS, Greece (AP) — The medieval monastery clings almost impossibly to sheer cliffs high above the shimmering turquoise of the Aegean Sea. Rising from the rugged granite rock, its walls enclose ...