PATMOS, an island in the group of the Sporades in the Aegean Sea about 28 m. S.S.W. of Samos (37° 20' N. lat. and 26° 35' E. long. ; length from north to south, about io m., greatest breadth 6 m.). The island is volcanic, bare and rocky throughout; rising to about 800 ft. with deeply indented coast. The harbour of Scala opening eastward divides the island into two nearly equal portions with a narrow isthmus where stood the ancient town. On the hill above are massive remains of the citadel. The modern town stands on a ridge in the southern half. A steep paved road leads in about twenty minutes from the port of Scala to the monastery of St. John, crowning the hill with towers and battlements, a fortress rather than a monastery. Of the boo mss. once in its library only 24o are left. The houses of the town are better built than those of neighbouring islands, but the streets are narrow and winding. Pop. c. 4,20o. The port of Scala contains about 140 houses, besides some old well-built magazines and some potteries. Scattered over the island are about 30o chapels.
Patmos is rarely mentioned in antiquity. Ionians settled there at an early date. As a remote islet it was the place of banishment of St. John the Evangelist, under Domitian in A.D. 95. He was
released about eighteen months afterwards under Nerva. Here he is said to have written the Apocalypse. To the left of the road from Scala to the town, about half-way up the hill, a grotto is still shown (re crri7Xatov 'Hs ' AroKaX4Ecos) in which the apostle is said to have received the heavenly vision. It is reached through a small chapel dedicated to St. Anne. The Acts of St. John, attributed to Prochorus, narrates the miracles wrought by the apostle during his stay on the island, but, while describing how the Gospel was revealed to him in Patmos, it does not mention the Apocalypse. During the dark ages Patmos seems to have been entirely deserted, probably on account of the pirates. In 1088 the emperor Alexis Comnenus, by a golden bull, which is still preserved, granted the island to St. Christodulus for the purpose of founding a monastery. This was the origin of the Monastery of St. John, which now owns the greater part of the southern half of Patmos, as well as farms in Crete, Samos and other neighbour ing islands. The embalmed body of the founder is in a side chapel of the church. The island was subject to Turkey till it was annexed by Italy in 1912. The population is Greek.