Page "Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople" Paragraph 9

The monastic communities of Mount Athos are stavropegial and are directly under the jurisdiction of Ecumenical Patriarch who is the only bishop with jurisdiction thereover.

Athos, the " Autonomous Monastic State of the Holy Mountain ” (“ Αυτόνομη Μοναστικὴ Πολιτεία Ἁγίου Ὄρους ”), is a self-governed part of the Greek state, subject to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its political aspect and to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinopole as regards its religious aspect.