P A T M O S

Patmos is where St. John the Divine, traditionally identified with the Apostle John, spent several years in exile, dwelling in a cave and composing the Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation. From that time on, the island has been regarded as hallowed ground, re-consecrated through the centuries by the erection of more than 300 churches, one for every nine residents. Patmos, like the other Dodecanese islands, is the result of ancient volcanic activity. And, like the others, it is small, only twenty-five miles in circumference (ten miles long and six miles wide at the widest point) with a mostly mountainous total area of fifteen square miles. Near the center of the island, Skala is the island's modern commercial center and port.

Populated today by some 2500 people who make their living from sponge diving and tourism, Patmos was largely deserted during the Middle Ages due in part to its vulnerability to Aegean pirates. It's earliest inhabitants, however, included Dorian and, later, Ionian settlers. In Roman times it may have served as a locale for exiled political dissidents, though, unlike on some neighboring islands, there is no remaining physical evidence. Which brings us to the author of the Book of Revelations, who identified himself as "I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 1:9 NRSV).

The town of Pátmos (Khóra), up a winding road from the port, consists of the fortified Monastery of St. John the Divine surrounded by box-like houses that gleam white in the Aegean sun. Begun by St. Christodoulos in1088 at the behest of Emperor Alexius I Comnenus, the monastery contains a principal church plus five additional chapels. The autonomy of the monastery was confirmed under Venetian rule (1207-1537); during the Turkish occupation (1537-1912) annual tribute was required from the monks. Today the Island is part of Greece and the monastery is maintained by Greek Orthodox monks who patiently watch tourists gawk at the splendors of their ancient home.

The pride of the Monastery of St. John the Divine is its library or treasury, which contains one of the most important collections of monastic items in Greece, including embroidered stoles from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, priceless icons, and silver-framed mosaics from the same period. More: precious illuminated manuscripts, church furniture from the seventeenth century, plus Benediction crosses in wooden filigree. And on top of the strictly religious items there is jewelry in the shape of ships worn by the wives of wealthy merchants.

Below the monastery is a cave, the Cave of St. Anne, where John is purported to have dictated the Book of Revelations to his disciple, Prochoros. It is reached by a flight of steep stairs, invariably crowded with tourists, at the end of which is a tiny room that also is notable for the number of tourists that are able to cram into it.