In the Cyclades, the monasteries suspended between the sky and the sea were not refuges for people who, in the name of mystical divinization, left the world for a life of solitude. They were fortresses defending faith and homeland. That is why they were built not just far from towns and villages, but in protected locations, constructed like castles, literally god-fortified, from where one gazes at the Light that emanates the union of heaven and sea.

In the Cyclades, the monks worked all day in the few fields and barren terraces, tireless workers of Christ and the people, like every islander in difficult times. And when danger surrounded the island, they would quickly gather the flock around them, becoming defenders of people and saviors of souls. As Makriyannis says, these monks, with the works of their hands, fed the poor, most of them perished in the Struggle, defending faith and homeland.

In the Cyclades, culture was preserved by monks. The language, the letters, the arts, history, tradition. Reading the Gospels, carving stone and marble, painting walls and portable icons, weaving clothes and blankets, writing poems and prayers, psalms and music. But above all transmitting the language and letters not in secret, as it is said, but in open schools, in the cells and courtyards of the monasteries.

Speaking the language of the Scriptures and reading ancient texts, which they collected not because they agreed with what was written, but because what they said was in Greek and taught goodness. In the Cyclades, after so many centuries of slavery to Romans, Franks, and Ottomans, one can only admire what existed and what remains in the ruins and peaks of our islands. But also what continues to exist.

No book can describe the images of the created and naturally the thoughts beyond the uncreated, if it is not found in the monasteries of the Aegean, where the spirit unites with the heart, the homeland with faith, heaven with the sea...

This book is an encouragement to explore the god-fortified monasteries of the Aegean, from where like the island monk one can gaze at the world in the Light of the mystical union of heaven with the sea. (from the preface of the book)