Patmos: The island of Revelation

• Small island in the eastern part of the Aegean Sea
• Location of John’s exile in c.95 AD
• Writing of the Book of Revelation took place traditionally in a cave on the island

Patmos’ Christian history begins c.95 AD, when the Roman Emperor Domitian sent the evangelist John to the island in exile.  It was here that John traditionally wrote the Book of John and the Book of Revelation.  Revelation 1:9 states, “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (NIV).  The traditional site of the cave where John received his revelation is now the main draw to the island, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  In the early centuries of the Church, beginning in the fourth century AD, several churches were built commemorating John’s influence on the island.  In 1088, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos gave the island to the priest Christodoulos, who began the building of the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian.  Nine centuries later, the monastery is still functioning and able to be visited by tourists.

Patmos is a small island (thirteen square miles) at the north end of the Dodecanese, a group of islands located in the eastern part of the Aegean Sea.  While archaeological evidence shows that the island was inhabited in Classical and Hellenistic times, the island was of little importance.  A temple to the goddess Artemis (after whom the island perhaps was named) was the only building of note, built in the fourth century BC and torn down in the fourth century AD, when several Christian monuments were being built on the island.  During the Roman period, the island became more remote and a place of exile.  The most notable of these exiles was the evangelist John, who was sent there c.95 AD under the emperor Domitian.  With churches built on the island in the fourth century and a large monastery in the eleventh century, Patmos became a center of Christianity and monasticism in the Aegean Sea.  Due to its location, Patmos unfortunately was often subject to raids by pirates and later by Turks looking to add the islands to their territory.  After occupation by the Ottoman Empire and the Italians, Patmos (along with the remaining islands of the Dodecanese) became part of the modern Greece state in 1948.