Patmos & The Monastery of St. John

  • by XpatAthens
  • Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Patmos & The Monastery of St. John

The locked gates to one of the world’s most revered holy places are themselves imposing, looming high above the port of Skala on this island in the eastern Aegean. The St. John monastery was built by St. Christodoulos in 1088 to venerate St. John, who wrote the Book of Revelation in a nearby cave after being exiled to the island in 95 AD by the Roman emperor Domitian.

 Now home to 15 monks, the monastery is located at the highest point of Hora, which is a spiral of whitewashed buildings, many in varying states of graceful decay, perched dramatically over the port.

Visiting the monastery was my first order of business on Patmos and it did not disappoint. The church’s icons are visually arresting, the views of the surrounding islands are sublime, and the presence of black clad monks a reminder that St. John’s is a magnet for devout Christians.

Locals claim that Patmos has more than 300 churches, or one for every 10 residents. Father Ioustinianos, 62, a monk from Crete who has lived at St. John’s for 22 years. took me on a private tour of Zoodochos Pigi, an early 17th-century monastery in Hora, and invited me to an afternoon service at St. John’s.

To read more, please visit boston.com

By Dave Seminara