On Tue, May 16, we took advantage from a rare Southerly wind to go further North and under spinnaker we set course for the 21 Nm to Patmos. Later in the afternoon the wind died and we had to motor for the last hour or so.
Patmos is famous as the location where John of Patmos received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written.
John was exiled to Patmos in 95 AD, by Roman emperor Domitian for: “publicly teaching theories which would subvert the nation”. Most Christian scholars believe John of Patmos – John the Revelator – John the Baptist – John the Theologist – John the Evangelist and the Apostle John to be one and the same person. However some scholars believe there was one more; “John the Presbyter – John the Elder” and they separate the disciple from the writer of Revelation.
Facts are that a John was exiled to Patmos, lived in a cave (now called Cave of the Apocalypse) and wrote the book there.
The Cave of the Apocalypse is located approximately halfway up the mountain, along the road between the villages of Chóra and Skala. The cave became a place of refuge for John and his disciple and scribe, Prochorus, who had also been exiled. A monastery and churches were built around the cave.
This is what it is all about. The actual cave is the low part to the right. The higher part to the left is the Chapel of St. Anna, a later add-on.
It has been told in Christian tradition that the rock inside the cave was shredded, and through three thin openings, symbolising the Holy Trinity, John heard a loud voice in his head instructing him to write down what he saw in a book and send it to the seven churches. The three thin “openings” are marked by the pink lines.
In the back of the cave there is a fenced off section were a niche in the rock “A”, shows were the saint laid his head to rest. To the left if you look closely you will see a relief of a Greek cross that locals believe was not made by human hands. A little higher to the right there is another niche “B”, where he held on to the rock to raise himself up from his resting place and to lean against while dictating the words of god to his pupil, Prochorus, who stood next to him, at a natural rock desk “C”, that can still be seen today.
According to historians St. John and Prohoros stayed 18 months on Patmos, and then returned to Ephesus, the place they were exiled from, to spend the last years of their lives. John was approx. 100 years old when he died.
Revelation is an apocalyptic prophecy addressed to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. The term apocalypse means the revealing of divine mysteries. The entire book constitutes the prophecy—the letters to the seven individual churches are introductions to the rest of the book, which is addressed to all seven. (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and to Laodicea). We visited the cities shown in bold print when in Türkiye.
Conventional understanding has been that the Book of Revelation was written to comfort beleaguered Christians as they underwent persecution at the hands of an emperor.
In 1088, Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos gave the island of Patmos to the soldier-priest Osios Christodoulos. The greater part of the monastery was completed by Christodoulos three years later. He heavily fortified the exterior because of the threats of piracy and Seljuk Turks. Christodoulos also built the fortress-monastery in Pyli on Kos island, see older post; (https://www.twobatsea.com/kos-greece/).
The monastery-fortress attracted worshippers from the day it was finished and people started building houses around the fortress base to find protection in case of pirate raids and war. Thus the Cora was born. Population was expanded by infusions of Byzantine immigrants fleeing the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and Cretan immigrants fleeing the fall of Crete to the Ottomans in 1669.
At the waterfront in Skala we stumbled upon this discreet fence. The plaque below the image of St. John reads; “Remains of the baptistry of Evangelist John the Theologist 95 AD”.
Soon we would leave the Dodecanese islands and cross the Aegean sea to the Cyclades islands.
Thank you for reading our story ’till the end. Warm regards, Liza and Frits.