According to the monastic tradition, the Virgin Mary visited the Mount Athos, when they were sailing to Cyprus with John the Evangelist to visit Lazarus, had a major storm due to the location and they were forced to run aground where the monastery of the Iberians is found. The Virgin Mary, according to tradition was so impressed with the unique landscape of Mount Athos and asked her son to donate her the peninsula.

Then the tradition said that the voice of Christ  was heard who eternally devoted Athos to the Virgin. Since then the Mount was called Garden of Our Lady.

The oldest monasteries were founded during the reign of Constantine the Great. The monastic centers were destroyed by Julian the Apostate, but they were founded again by glorious Theodosius the Great and Pulcheria.

In the edict of Alexios I Komnenos for the Monastery of the Lavra (around 1144) recognized and was officially named " Mount Athos in spite of everything"  .

athos_by_stathis_xionidis2  He called the  Mountain as"the most royal and divine  among all the mountains."

The monks of Mount Athos were dedicated to the Mother of God and called the Holy Mountain " Garden of Our Lady. "  This is the fact where the inaccessibility for female to Mount Athos is based.