Patmos.
Patmos.
THE ISLANDS
390
599. Patmos, Theologos monastery by Barskij, 1770 (Πάτμος, η μονή
του Θεολόγου κατά τον Barskij, 1770)
599. Patmos, Chora and Saint John Theologos monastery (Πάτμος, η Χώρα με τη μονή του Αγίου Ιωάννη του Θεολόγου)
599.
Patmos.
On Patmos, where Saint John Theologos wrote the Apoca-
lypse in the late 1st c., very few Early Christian remains sur-
vive. At the site where the catholicon of the Saint John Theol-
ogos monastery (1) was later built, there are a ruined basilica
and a frugal eukterion dedicated to the same saint. On the
coast of Skala (2) are preserved the remnants of a baptistery
where the first Orthodox of the island were baptised, accord-
ing to tradition. It may have been part of an Early Christian
basilica with surviving traces of the apse.
In 1088, according to the founding chrysobull of Emperor
Alexius I Comnenus (r. 1081-1118), Patmos was ceded to Ho-
sios Christodoulos so that he could establish the monastery;
thus, from a deserted, uninhabited island, Patmos turned into
a base of vital importance for the Byzantine empire’s defence.
The architecture of the monastic complex (1), with its intense,
