This afternoon, on our Footsteps of Paul tour, we continued our cruise to Patmos, one of the Sporades. A small rugged island of the Icarian Sea, part of the Aegean. The scene of John’s banishment (by Domitian), where he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” The rocky solitude suited the sublime nature of the Revelation. On a hill in the southern half of the island is the monastery of John the divine, and the traditional grotto of his receiving the Apocalypse. We got to enter into the monastery and see some of the oldest Biblical manuscripts, including the Purple Codex.

In the middle ages called Palmosa from its palms; now there is but one, and the island has resumed its old name Patmo or Patino. It is unvisited by Turks, without any mosque, and saddled with moderate tribute, free from piracy, slavery, and any police but their own.

We were also able to see the famed Windmills of Patmos. Two of these windmills on a hill just below Hora village were built in 1588 (the third in 1863), when the relatively new technology spread throughout Europe. In the 1950s the windmills were abandoned and became derelict. Since 2009 the windmills have been restored for use as an example of conservation, alternative technology, as a cultural and educational resource and tourist attraction.