Patmos island

From time to time the people of Patmos look out over the Aegean Sea at a light that shines on the slopes of a mountain on the neighboring island of Samos. Some say the strange light is static electricity, but Patmos' religious residents insist they know. They are rushing to inform residents that they have received yet another signal from the island's most famous former resident, who was exiled to this tiny Greek island off the coast of Asia Minor almost 1900 years ago.

This famous man was condemned, probably by the Roman emperor Domitian, to live in Patmos "because he spoke of God and testified of Jesus". There he heard the voice of God say "like a trumpet": "I am Alpha and Omega ... Whatever you see, write on a scroll" (Revelation 1: 8-11).

This scroll or book is the epilogue to the bestseller of all time. Some have described it as one of the least understood works ever written: the biblical book called Revelation, or Revelation, the last book of the Bible. The writer was John, the apostle of Jesus. The views John received on the final catastrophe of the evil world have interested readers for centuries. * *

Patmos today

Many visitors will agree that Patmos, the northernmost region of the Dodecanese Islands, is the perfect setting for this book. Imposing volcanic walls and abysses of dark shadows next to green hills and flowering meadows boiling under the scorching sun of the Aegean Sea.

To see how Patmos is today, I sailed from Piraievs, the main port in Greece. After midnight, when the ferry reached the port in the form of the Skála Fjord, the port of Patmos and the big city, the clouds opened and revealed the island in the light of the full moon.

The next morning I prepared myself to explore the island over a bitter Greek coffee. The early morning scene showed the grandmothers, dressed in black from head to toe, trying to keep up with the children on the run. A mustache fisherman sitting nearby hit his lunch, an octopus he had just pulled out of the water, against the concrete pillar to soften it.

Instead of getting on a boat, I decided to go up the slope behind Skála to take a look at the whole island. The view was remarkable. The island stretched out into the sea like a huge relief map. Patmos offers three islands in one, cables connected by a low isthmus. One of these narrow strips of land is in Skála. The other is in Diakofti, which means "separate", near the southern end of the island. Patmos is only eight miles long and at one point just a few steps away.

In stormy weather

Patmos has been sacred since the first settlers arrived from Asia Minor about 4,000 years ago. These first residents chose the island's second highest point as the site of their temple for Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.

Around AD 96, when the apostle John was believed to have been exiled to Patmos, he was under the rule of imperial Rome. In the 4th century the island became part of the "Christianized" Byzantine Empire. Then, between the 7th and 10th centuries, it was dominated by Islam.

Over time, Patmos became deserted and dry. Then, in the late 11th century, a Greek Orthodox monk began to build the fortified monastery of "Saint" John on the site of the pagan temple of Artemis. The settlers gradually returned and built a series of white cubic houses in Hora, the town that still hugs the protective walls of the monastery.

The island briefly flirted with fame in the late 19th century when some of its citizens owned one of the richest merchant fleets in the Mediterranean. This fleet was indirectly responsible for a new invasion. In the 1970s, wealthy people around the world discovered the beauty and economic features of an essentially forgotten island. They renovated many of the old seafarer's homes and this, along with the new port facilities, helped put Patmos on the tourist map.

So far, Patmos has escaped the wave of tourists that has almost ruined other Greek islands. The main reasons are the lack of an airport and the monks' insistence that it remain a sacred area.

Mix history and tradition

To help me plan my exploration of the island, my server referred me to the 400 year old cobblestone path behind the village of Skála, which, in your opinion, leads through a fragrant pine forest to João's cave and also to the monastery. . from San Juan. On the outskirts of the city, I came across an eerie graffiti that was painted red on a stone wall: “Ohi sto 666” (Warning 666), one of the little-known symbols of the Apocalypse.

The Apocalypse Monastery, in which the small chapel "Santa" Ana is located, was built in 1090 to close the entrance to the cave where, according to tradition, Juan received his visions. I saw a single woman kneeling and tying a tama (sacrifice) to the icon of "Saint" John. Orthodox followers, who believe the icon can work miracles, present it with tamata - small metallic images of people, body parts, houses and even cars and ships. I remembered seeing similar offerings made of clay near Corinth in the temple of the ancient Greek medicinal god Asclepius. Just a coincidence?

Cultural relics and manuscripts

Upon entering the courtyard of the "San" Juan monastery, a friendly figure emerged from the dark labyrinth of the corridors. "Papa Nikos" (Father Nick) was personally proud to show several other tourists and me the treasures of the monastery. The monastery, which owns much of Patmos, is one of the richest and most influential in Greece.

By candlelight we passed a cold, dark chapel in which the remains of the monastery founder rest, then the chapel of the Virgin, which was partly built from stones from the Temple of Artemis. In the museum we saw the rescue of a king in gold and jewelry donated by the tsars. the 11th century deed of the island's monks signed by the Byzantine Emperor Aleixo I Comneno; and a beautiful 6th-century fragment of the Gospel of Mark, written on purple parchment with silver in place of ink. In addition to this fragment, the monastery houses a large collection of biblical and theological manuscripts.

View of the island

The island also offers natural beauty. A few kilometers south of Skála, an unspoilt beach meanders along a sheltered bay. The beach is shallow and atypical, with the exception of Kalikatsou, which means "cormorant", a rock in the middle of the beach that is five or six stories high and interspersed with caves like giant Swiss cheese.

The best way to enjoy Patmos is to bypass it. If you wish, you can sit in the scorching sun amid the excavated ruins of the ancient Kastelli Acropolis and listen to the distant sheep bells and the shrill whistle of the shepherd. Or, on an afternoon when the Aegean Sea spreads its muslin mist across the sky, you might want to sit back and watch the beaches as the ships, departing in the evaporating mist, soar towards the sky.

On my last day there, a beautiful red setting sun enlarged the city below. In the bay, lantern fishermen prepared small, non-motorized boats known as gri-gri ducklings that are launched on the line behind a mother boat.

The whole island seemed to glow. A cold wind and high waves disturbed the Gri-Gri dangerously. A few hours later I saw the boats again, from the ferry deck back to Piraievs, passing their fishing grounds a mile from the shore. The men turned on the dazzling lights that attracted fish. That night, until she and the island behind them disappeared from view, I remembered the image of an exiled John writing his visions of Patmos.