밧모섬(Patmos)(영문 안내문)

밧모섬(Patmos). 그리스(Greece)

 

 

The small island of Patmos, rocky & barren, is the site of the famed Monastery of St. John the Theologian, high above the modern port town of Skala. Most of the islands approximately 2,500 people live in 3 villages: Skala, Medieval Chora & the small rural settlement of Kambos. Skala, the islands main port, is its commercial center & the location now of almost all the hotels & restaurants. It is also a popular port of call for cruise ships, & in summer, huge liners often loom over the town for several hours everyday. There is not much to see in the town, but stric building codes have been enforced & even new buildings have traditional architectural detail. The village of Chora, clustered around the walls of the Monastery, has become a preserve of international wealth; many of the houses, now exquisitely restored, are owned by the Athenians & foreigners, who discovered the settlements some years ago.

 

The early history of Patmos remains shadowy, for classical references are few & the area has not been the object of extensive excavation. There is scattered evidence of Mycenean presence, & the walls of Classical date indicate the existence of a town near Skala. In 95 AD, during the Emperor Domitian's persecution of Christians, St. John was banished to Patmos, where he lived until his reprieve 2 year later. He writes that it was on Patmos that he "heard.... a great voice, as of a trumpet", commanding him to write a book & "send it unto the 7 churches". According to tradition, St. John wrote the text of Revelation in the little cave, the Sacred Grotto, now built into the Monastery of the Apocalypse.

 

Patmos was virtually abandoned after the 6 th century, & it reemerges in history at the end of the 11th century, with the founding of the Monastery of St. John the Theologian by Hosios, Christodoulos, a man of education, energy, devotion & vision. Born in Bythynia in Asia Minor, he had spent some years as a hermit; he built the Theotokos Monastery on the island of Kos, & came to Patmos in 1088. He wrote, "My ardent desire was to possess this island at the edge of the world, for there were no people, all was tranquility, no boats dropped anchor here". So he travelled to Constantinople for permission to set up a monastery, receiving Patmos in exchange for his holdings on the island of Kos

 

- Louis Majesty 선박에서 제공한 영문 안내문에서 -

 

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