9/9/21

The name Patmos is said to come from the mountain Latmos of Karina in Asia Minor where the goddess Artemis was being worshiped. According to legend, Patmos sunk and Artemis, with the help of Apollo persuaded Zeus to bring the Island back to the surface. 

Patmos is known as the "Island of the Apocalypse” because, within a cave John, the disciple of Christ, envisioned the Apocalypse found in the book of Revelations while banished to the island by the Roman emperor Domitian in the year 95AD. He took refuge in a cave with his student Prochorus. 

For centuries the island was the home of saracen pirates until 1088 when St Christodoulos was granted permission to establish a monastery in honour of St John.

So we decided to have a tourist day and visit the monastery of St John, the cave and the chapel of St Ann. Opening times did not allow us to visit the cave and the monastery on the same day so we visited the monastery first. You can get a bus up to the monastery, if you want wait a very long time for a bus, or you can get a very expensive taxi, or you can walk. We opted for the later and ambled up the hill to the monastery. A very impressive building, very ornate Byzantine illuminations and a very spiritual place. The chora surrounding the monastery is a maze of tightly knitted white and blue painted buildings with narrow streets and lanes that you could get very lost in, built this way on purpose so that the chora and the monastery would not get invaded by the pirates. 

The monastery of St John

The next day we visited the cave and the chapel of St Ann. Again we walked up the hill but this time it was only half way up as the cave is half way between Skala Patmos and the Chora. The cave has been added to over the years to include the chapel and some living quarters for the monks but it was still a very spiritual place. We had the chance to pick our time to get into the cave between the hoards of tourists who were being shepherded between tourist attractions at break neck speed, to get a real feel for the spiritual nature of the place. 

Photo of The Holy Cave of the Apocalypse, taken from a guide book as there was no photos allowed in the cave.

In the afternoon I was excited to have the opportunity to do some washing in a washing machine for the first time since the 1st Aug. I have been washing the clothes by hand in sea water then rinsing out in fresh water, that is until our fresh water in the tanks started to run low then all bedding and clothes washing was stopped. Armed with a full bag of washing I found a self service laundry and piled the laundry into the machine. 20 minutes later I had lovely smelling damp washing to hang up on every piece of running rigging and make shift washing lines I could find. 

We plan to move onto Arki tomorrow.