The Monastery’s History
At the site where the catholicon of the monastery of St. John the Theologian was built there were pre-existent ruins of an Early Christian basilica and a later oratory dedicated to the same saint. Traces of a temple dedicated to Artemis have also been identified in that area. In the year 1088, according to the founding chrysoboul by Emperor Alexius I Komnenoi, the isle of Patmos was conceded to osios (venerable) Christodoulos in order to erect a monastery; thus Patmos was transformed from a desolate and uninhabited island to an outpost vital in the defence of the Byzantine State.
The monastery maintained good relations with the Knights Hospitallers, who after 1309 formed their state in the Dodecanese, as well as with the Ottoman, who succeeded them in 1522, becoming one of the major pilgrimage destinations of the Christian faith and acquiring a series of imperial privileges, tax-exemptions, lands and dependencies, even a privately owned commercial flotilla.
Monastery’s Architecture
The architecture of the monastic complex, with its dominant castle-like character, was formed gradually over the centuries, the result of various building phases. The catholicon was erected in the late 11th century, and it constitutes a variation of the simple tetrastyle cruciform inscribed temple. The chapels of Panaghia (Virgin Mary) and Osios Christodoulos are 12th century additions, while the retrofitting of the refectory (from wooden-roofed to vaulted with a cupola) and the construction of the catholicon’s stoa also date to this period. Significant building activities were undertaken during the 16th and 17th centuries, following an initiative of the abbot Nikephoros Chartophylax and Parthenios Pagkostas. This is the time of the building of the chapels of the Timios Stavros (Holy Cross), Agion Apostolon (Sτ. Apostles) and Agios Onoufrios. During the last decade of the 11th century, a large building project was realized with funds provided by Neofytos Grimanis, the metropolis of Karpathos, which among else included the construction of a two-storey stoa in the courtyard, the so-called ‘tzafara’, by the Rhodian mason Daniel.
Pictorial Decoration and Relics of the monastery
The encomium of Athanasios of Antioch for osios Christodoulos, where the “disconcerting beauty of the church” and the “lustre of its marble” is mentioned, supports the claim that, by the mid-12th cent. the church was already decorated with frescoes. This original decoration was covered around 1600 by the later decoration of the catholicon, the narthex and the chapel of Osios Christodoulos. An interesting aspect of this pictorial decoration lies in the selection of some rare scenes from the Evangelical narratives, like the example of the withered fig tree or the Parable of the hundred sheep. In the inner narthex we have an impressive depiction of the Massacre of the Innocents, influenced by works of 14th and 15th century Italian painters. The sublime aesthetic result reveals the artist's ability, apparently a very talented painter from a Cretan workshop of the era; he was chosen by the, also Cretan, abbot and scholar Nikephoros Chartophylax.
The pictorial ensemble of the Panaghias chapel, discovered underneath the 1745 murals, is a splendid example of the ‘monumental’ tendency of the late 12th century. In this iconographic project emphasis is given to the portraits of the venerable Patriarchs of Jerusalem, and apparently this echoes the position of the likely sponsor, osios Leontios, abbot of the monastery and later Patriarch of Jerusalem. The superior quality of the decoration reflects the monastery’s aesthetic orientation towards the Empire’s centre, Constantinople, while the iconographic program with the frieze depicting the Jerusalem patriarchs, which was then under Latin occupation, can be construed as an expression of imperial opposition to the increasing dominance of the Franks in that area. The first phase frescoes in the monastery’s refectory are attributed to the same workshop. The building was decorated anew in the first decades of the 13th century with motifs from the eucharistic and the dogmatic cycles, the cycle of the Passion of Christ and the life of the ascetics.
The oldest icon kept in the monastery dates to the 11th century, it is a mosaic depicting aghios Nikolaos (St. Nicholas). A series of portable icons dated to the first half of the 15th century testify to Patmos’ new orientation towards Crete in terms of its artistic preferences. These affinities are strengthened following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, especially since Stylos, the monastery’s dependency in Apokorona of Crete, becomes its most important source of income. A number of eminent Cretan artists, active between the 15th and the 17th centuries, like Andreas Ritzos and his son Nikolaos, Angelos, Nikolaos Tzafouris, Michael Damascenos, Georgios Klotzas, Thomas Bathas, Ieremias Palladas, Theodoros Poulakis, have created some of the surviving signed works.
The monastery’s library was also renowned, and it is one of the very few Byzantine libraries to have to have survived until recent times virtually intact. NumeNumerous manuscripts and printed works are kept there, as well as important imperial documents and rich archival material. Among the monastery’s relics are also masterpieces of silversmithing, miniature art and gold-embroidering.
Source: www2.egeonet.gr
