Abbess Mariam Soulakiotis[a][note 5] (c. 1883[note 3] – 23 November 1954),[2][5] née Marina Soulakiotou,[c][3]: 360  also known either to her followers as Mariam of Keratea,[g][6][7] or in contemporary media pejoratively as "Mother Rasputin",[h][9][3]: 357 [1] was a Greek Old Calendarist Eastern Orthodox abbess and serial killer who was found guilty of numerous counts of murder, fraud and other crimes, which public prosecutors of the Kingdom of Greece alleged she committed against both laypeople and other nuns in her abbey[3]: 365–366  between 1939 and her arrest in December 1950.

[10][11] Greek civil authorities first arrested Soulakiotis on two charges unrelated to serial murder: export of olive oil to Cyprus and import of tires[4] after a large raid on her abbey which took place on 4 December 1950.

[12] As she died before all of her criminal trials were done, she was only technically found guilty of seven premeditated murders—as well as more than one hundred negligent homicides due to offering 'free' tuberculosis treatment that only consisted of staying at her monastery's high altitude locale, not medical therapy.

[3][13] Little is known of Soulakiotis' life before she became an Orthodox nun,[2] except that she was a factory worker,[8] and that she was born with the given name Marina[3]: 359–360  c. 1883 in Keratea, Greece,[note 3] which is around 50.6 kilometers (31.4 mi) from Athens.

[17] Her childhood home, later converted into one of the monastery's buildings, was at No.71 Megalou Alexandrou St.[3]: 360 [d] Soulakiotis started as a nun in the mainstream Greek Orthodox Church (GOC), but soon became a close confidante of her religious superior, the Bishop Matthew Karpathakis of Vresthena.

[3]: 360  Greek author Nina Kouletaki[i] writes that even having reviewed "long" sympathetic, Matthewite histories of the monastery, there is no legal explanation as to how the nuns acquired the money to make these expensive property purchases.

The monastery's full Greek name, Ιερά Μονή Εισοδίων Παναγίας Πευκοβουνογιατρίσσης,[14] can be translated as 'Monastery of the Entrance [into the Temple] of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Healer, on the Pine Mountain'.

[6][16] During this period of her life, she was described and photographed wearing an even more chaste version of the typical epimandylion, a Greek-style black epanokalimavkion worn by Eastern Orthodox nuns of the highest rank (who cannot rise higher as they cannot become ordained priestesses),[19] which entirely covered her forehead and eyebrows.

[21] Soulakiotis first came to the attention of police when an anonymous complaint was made by the daughter of a wealthy woman who had willed all her property to the monastery—she insisted that her mother wouldn't have done this without being forced, and accused the monastery's administration of "blackmail and threats".

[25] The prosecution further alleged that Soulakiotis' strict adherence to ascetic practices led to the unnecessary deaths of 150 people who had sought treatment, as the monastery was touted as a sanatorium for TB.

[5][3]: 361  They also alleged that the only time doctors were allowed on site was to sign death certificates, never to carry-out medically supervised treatment of the deadly, communicable lung infection.

[12][26] More than eighty-five police officers first raided the monastery's grounds on the night of 4 December 1950, accompanied by a deputy prosecutor, a judge, and a coroner, in an operation which lasted overnight.

[3]: 365 When Archbishop Spyridon Vlachos of Athens failed to reconcile with Metropolitan Crysostomos of Florina, all Old Calendarist sects in Greece, including the Matthewites, were outlawed in January 1951.

[24] In furtherance of their defence, Panayotakos also showed a letter by Field Marshal Harold Alexander, which he claimed thanked the clergy of the Panagia Pefkovounogiatrissa Monastery[f] for heroically risking themselves to aid the escapes of a number of British soldiers during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II.

[31] This led police to protect the home of Archbishop Spyridon, who they said the Old Calendarists were planning to kidnap in retaliation, with the goal being to hold him hostage until the authorities released Soulakiotis.

[3]: 366 [e] Even after Soulakiotis' death, her sect continued underground despite having been outlawed; police were investigating cases of "young girls vanishing into thin air" which they believed led to the "rebel Keratea convent" as late as 1959.