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It is with immense joy and paternal satisfaction that we provide this foreword to the collaborative and impressive publication, entitled Flora of the Athos Peninsula. As many readers will undoubtedly be aware, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has for many centuries had a special and sacred relationship with the monastic community of Mount Athos, which lies immediately within its canonical jurisdiction. Moreover, as readers will also undeniably be aware, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has for decades pioneered diverse and numerous groundbreaking initiatives in its dedication to protect the unique and divine gift of creation. The book in your hands brings together these two fundamental and vital dimensions of the institution and ministry of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. From the outset of our commitment to creation care, we have emphasized the ascetic aspect of responding to the vocation of all Christians, and especially of Orthodox Christians, to preserve the natural environment. Ιη this regard, we have also highlighted the particular role and responsibility of monastics-both nuns and monks, convents and monasteries alike-in fulfilling the divine mandate to our forebearers ''to till and keep the garden'' (Gn 2.15). This is why we have previously observed that flowers and plants are satisfied and sustained with so little. They transform and multiply everything that they draw from nature, including some things that may appear to us as wasteful or useless. They adapt spontaneously and produce abundantly, whether for the nourishment or admiration of others. They enjoy a microcosm of their own, while at the same time equally contributing to the macrocosm around them. Monastics οη Mount Athos know these truths. They respond to the ecological commandments in an extraordinary and exceptional way inasmuch as they live οη what is traditionally known as ''the Garden of the Theotokos.''Therefore, above being a cultural heritage site of UNESCO, beyond surviving dark periods throughout their centuries-old history, besides being a treasure-house of icons and manuscripts, and alongside earning the protection of Greek, European Union, and International Law, the twenty monasteries and countless sketes and other dependencies of Mount Athos are devoted to protecting its magnificent natural landscapeforests and farms, flora and fauna, as well as olive groves and vegetable gardens-where they are called to lead a life of discipline and prayer. This book is a wonderful testament to the plant life οη the Athonite Peninsula. At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Pascha 2024

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