According to Christian tradition, John was exiled to the island of Patmos in 95 AD. It is believed that with the help of a man named Prochoros, who is thought to be his student, he wrote the Apocalypse, the last book of the New Testament, based on the visions he had. At the same time he preached and baptized the inhabitants. The so far unknown island of Patmos was afterwards considered sacred and the cave of the Apocalypse became a place of pilgrimage. In the cave there is a threefold split in the rock, from where, according to John, the voice of Jesus could be heard at the time of the revelations like “a voice of thousand waters”. In the cave it is believed that there is the imprint of John. In the area surrounding the cave of the Apocalypse many ascetics and monks have settled since the time of Saint Christodoulos and helped in building the church of Agia Anna (Saint Anne) and the chapels of Agios Nikolaos (Saint Nicholas) and Agios Artemios (Saint Artemius).

New buildings erected in recent decades – among them, the big monastery of the Annunciation – surround the small church that was built next to a “kathisma” of the 16th century. Next to it there is the small church of Agios Loukas (Saint Luke) the Evangelist (1613) with an impressive door and a wood carved iconostasis plated with gold. It was built by the monk Nikephoros, in order to express his gratitude to the Saint when he recovered from a fatal disease. Nikephoros, who became an ecclesiarch, prior and bishop of Laodicea, was the founder of a high level school that served as a precursor of the School of Patmos. Later on, other ascetics lived in the hermitage and in 1937 it was ceded by the monastery of Saint John the Theologian to the elder Amphilochios Makris in order to found the convent. The small fraternity was then created and kept growing as time went by.   Today, the convent is a home for nuns. Among other things, they are engaged in beekeeping, gardening, sewing and most of all embroidering: they preserve the traditional Patmian type of stitch called “spitha” (sparkle), which is believed to date back to the Byzantine aristocratic families. There is a path starting from the monastery of the Annunciation and leading to the Gardens of Saint Christodoulos.   Info Tel.: + 30 22470 31276  

The monastery was founded in 1088 by Hosios Christodoulos o Latrinos (Saint Christodoulos Latrinos of Patmos), an emblematic figure of the Byzantine asceticism. The monastery is remarkable architecturally not only because it is harmoniously placed among the surroundings but also due to its continuity and connection with history.  

The monastery was founded in 1607 by the hieromonk Parthenios Pagkostas and has a very interesting architecture. The complex is in a Π shape and includes wings of two-story cells, the priory and the ovens.

They were founded by monks in caves next to which they later built a cell, or a small chapel, and most of the time they were depending on the Holy Monastery. The earliest is located in Petra, on the rock called Kallikatsou.