Patmos: The Monastery of St. John

The Monastery of St. John is located near the village of Chora on the isle of Patmos was founded in 1088 by the monk Christodoulos the Blessed in honor of St. John the Divine, author of the book of Revelation. Although it looks like a fairy tale castle with its buttresses and towers, it was actually built as a religious fortress to protect the treasures that lie within.

The treasury contains over 200 icons, 300 pieces of silverware, books and manuscripts, medieval textiles, and a remarkable collection of jewels. One of the masterpieces is the 12th century Icon of St. John which is housed in the katholikon, or the monastery’s main church.

Also contained in the treasury is the Chrysobull, the monastery’s foundation deed from 1088. It was sealed in gold by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Comnenos.

The monastery boasts 18th century frescoes of St. John in the main courtyard, but the 12th century Hospitality of Abraham is one of the most important frescoes found in the chapel of the Panagia where it had been painted over. It was discovered after a 1956 earthquake.

The main entrance to the monastery has slits for pouring boiling oil over pirates and invading Turks. This 17th century gate leads to the cobbled main courtyard.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is one of ten chapels in the monastery. Church law forbade celebrating Mass more than once a day in the same chapel. Other notable chapels include the Chapel of John the Baptist and the Chapel of St. Christodoulous.

The monks’ refectory has two marble tables taken from the Temple of Artemis, which once stood on this site.

The Niptir Ceremony celebrated on Maundy Thursday during Orthodox Easter is one of the most important ceremonies on Patmos. The abbot of the monastery publicly washes the feet of 12 monks, re-enacting the Biblical story of Christ washing the feet of the 12 apostles before the Last Supper. The ceremony was once performed by Byzantine emperors as an act of humility.

Modest dress is required and shoulders and knees must be covered. There is a strenuous uphill climb to reach the site.

According to our itinerary, we visit on Tuesday afternoon from 4-9 p.m. and the monastery is open from 8 a.m. -1 p.m. and from 4-6 p.m. Admission to the monastery is free, but costs 6 euros to visit the treasury. Chora is 2.5 miles from the port of Skala.

A visit to the monastery and the Cave of the Apocalypse is one of the optional excursions offered by the cruise line for 49 euros. It lasts 2 hours and includes transportation to Chora in an air-conditioned bus. There will still be the climb to the monastery by foot.

Another experienced EF group leader who took the Greek Isle cruise last spring does not recommend paying for an optional excursion on Patmos. His recommendation is to take a taxi for a few euros to the Cave of the Apocalypse (what he claims is the most interesting part of the island.)

He says that he has been to the monastery and that it has some interesting things, but would save his euros for something else. I offer you his advice in addition to your own reading about the monastery so that you can make your own decision on the optional excursions. There is another excursion offered on Patmos…but that is a future blog.

Try watching this YouTube video about the Monastery of St. John. That long document is the Chrysobull...the only picture I could find of it!

The Isle of Patmos

Patmos, one of the Dodecanese Islands, is known as the Jerusalem of the Aegean. It is the island where St. John the Divine was exiled and where he penned the apocalyptic book of Revelations. The small island is only 13 square miles with a population of about 3,000.

St. John arrived on Patmos in 95 AD after his exile from Ephesus, and the Monastery of St. John, one of the major sites on the island, was founded in 1088. Ship-building and trade brought about the decline of monastic control.

The cruise ship will dock at Skala, the main city and port for Patmos sheltered by a wide bay. From Skala, an old cobbled path leads up to the Monastery of St. John near the small village of Chora. It is a fairly strenuous up-hill walk to the monastery, but the panoramic views are beautiful from here.

Chora boasts over 40 Byzantine monasteries and chapels, many with distinct window moldings, or mantomata, decorated with a Byzantine cross. The village is a maze of twisting alleyways, many of which lead to the doorways of large sea captains’ mansions, or archontika, built to keep marauding pirates at bay.

Down the path to Skala is the Agia Anna church built in 1090 dedicated to the mother of the Virgin Mary. Inside the church is the Holy Cave of the Apocalypse, also called the Grotto of the Apocalypse. Here is the silver-lined rock where St. John dictated the Book of Revelation to his disciple Prochoros and the indentation in the rock where the author rested his head.

Here also is the crack in the ceiling of the cave where it is said that St. John heard the voice of God. Its three parts symbolize the Trinity.

The stop in Patmos is only an afternoon, 3 to 4 hours, so the stay is not long. Visitors wearing shorts are not allowed in the monastery or grotto. Female visitors must wear clothing that covers the shoulders.

The Dodecanese

Two of the Greek Isles we will visit are part of the Dodecanese, literally meaning “the twelve,” a group of islands scattered along the southwest coast of Turkey. This southerly group of islands in the Aegean Sea attracts many visitors because of their hot climate and fine beaches.

Due to their distance from Athens and mainland Greece, these islands were subject to numerous invasions and the ruins left behind attest to their history of occupation by foreign powers. It wasn’t until 1948 that these islands became a part of the Greek state.

Twelve major islands and some 150 smaller islands make up the Dodecanese including Leros, Kalumnos, Kos, Astypalaia, Nisyros, Tilos, Symi, Chalki, Kastellorizo, Karpathos, and the two we will visit: Patmos and Rhodes, the capital of this island group. Only 26 of the islands are inhabited…and some for over 4,000 years!

History shows occupation of various islands by the Minoans, the Greeks, the Dorians, the Persians, and eventually the Roman Empire through the Classical Age. During the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire ruled the islands for almost 1,000 years as seen by the hundreds of churches dotting the islands.

In 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the islands and the Ottoman Empire ruled the area for several hundred years until 1912 when the islands declared their independence as the Federation of Dodecanese Islands. However, Italy took over almost immediately.

Following World War II, the 1947 Peace Treaty with Italy ended 740 years of foreign occupation and the islands became a part of Greece.