Patmos

After a leisurely morning we had a quick lunch and caught our 12:15 excursion to visit Patmos. Here is an early view of the island with the monastery on top of the highest point. The Apostle John was exiled here from 95 to 97 A.D. and during that time wrote the last book of the Bible - The Revelation of St John.

The Patmos harbor is very beautiful as you can see from this picture, featuring that classic Mediterranean Blue and white buildings

Our first stop after tendering to the town was the monastery. No pictures were allowed inside this beautiful, traditional Greek Orthodox church. The active monastery has a very nice museum as well as one of the largest libraries of ancient documents in the area. A 5th century copy of the Gospel of Mark was on display in the museum along with a large number of religious artifacts.

Next we visited the main attraction - the grotto of St John. Again, no pictures were allowed. 8-( This is a mosaic over the entrance depicting John with his young scribe. Seeing it was very moving - as long as you tuned out most of the talk from the tour guide which was heavily loaded with Greek Orthodox theology. John used the cave as a place to pray, which he was doing when the Revelation was given. The cave has a beautiful view of the sea that is now enclosed in a building. They had roped off the place where the Apostle John sat, as well as the places where he rested his head and saw the visions. The guide said that an earthquake struck after the initial vision and generated three cracks in the shape of an equilateral triangle - the symbol of the Trinity.

So now we are back on board ship and about to get ready for dinner. The weather has been beautiful - sunny with temperatures in the upper 70's to low 80's. Another day at sea tomorrow as we head to Israel!