Patmos: A Holy Island

What if you could escape to a deserted island and find God? Harold Harker leads us to just such a place.

It is called “The Holy Island.” The reason? Because on this remote Greek island—the northern-most of the Dodeconese Group—the apostle John, the disciple of Jesus, spent some of his final years as a prisoner, receiving visions, which he recorded as the apocalyptic book of Revelation.

Today tourist ships anchor in the deep blue waters of the harbour of Skala. Like other Greek isles, it has dazzling white buildings, often cube or block-like in style. Houses cling to the rocky hills that radiate outwards from the village of Hora, the highest of which point like fingers of a bony hand. Its 34-squarekilometres include sandy beaches where the azure water seems to indicate heaven came close to this part of the world.

The Monastery of St John at Hora has been a pilgrimage site for many years.

When Jesus was dying on the cross, He charged John, the youngest of the disciples, with the care of Mary, His mother.