Mihailo Tolotos was born in 1856 and never saw a woman in his life. Tolotos had a mother, but she died soon after his birth and he never met her.
Orphaned as an infant, Tolotos was adopted by Orthodox monks at the Monastery of Aynoroz on Mount Athos in Greece and raised by the monks who lived there.
As he grew up, Tolotos lived by the strict rules of the region, one of which was that women were not allowed.