PATMOS. – An island of the Aegean in the Sporades group, south of Samos and west of Miletus. Of volcanic origin, it measures at most 12.5 km. in length and has a maximum width of 5 km.; it extends between 37° 19′ north latitude and 26° 34′ east longitude. The aridity of its rocky soil permits only a sparse population (approximately 3,000 inhabitants).
Politically, P. followed the fate of the other Sporades; until 1948 it formed part of the Dodecanese, ceded to Italy by Turkey (1912); it has now passed to Greece.
The island is mentioned incidentally by ancient authors (cf. Pliny, Hist. nat., IV, 23; Strabo, X, 5, 13), but its fame is due to the fact that it received for several years St. Evangelist (v.), who there (Apoc. 1, 9) received the revelations described in the Apocalypse. As early as St. Irenaeus (Adversus haereses, V, 30, 3; PG 7, 1207) assigns the event to the final years (94–96) of the emperor Domitian.
Ceded in 1088 by Alexios I Komnenos to the monk Christodoulos, the island became the site of the monastery of St. John, which soon became a center of monastic life. The chapel is rich in splendid icons and frescoes depicting scenes from the life of St. John; the sacristy preserves precious furnishings, vestments, and jewels; the Library contains imperial diplomas, bulls, firmans, and codices, for example: the manuscript of the Gospel of St. Mark on purple parchment, with letters in silver and gold; the discourses of St. Gregory Nazianzen to priests, transcribed by two Calabrian monks and presented by Alexios I Komnenos to Christodoulos; the Book of Job (7th century), illuminated Gospels (11th century); and the litoria, or parchment rolls containing the Basilian liturgy or that of St. John Chrysostom.