June 17, 2012

Synaxis of All Saints of Patmos


On the second Sunday after Pentecost, each local Orthodox Church commemorates all the saints, known and unknown, who have shone forth in its territory. Accordingly, the Orthodox Church in Patmos remembers the saints of Patmos on this day.

The sacred island of Patmos is God-trodden, Apostle-trodden and sanctified with the presence of God and the Saints throughout all ages, both known and unknown, from the time of the Apostle John who was exiled here, and who was worthy of a Divine Vision, by which this small and insignificant island of the Aegean became equal to that of the Holy Land and Mount Sinai.

From the time of the establishment of the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian by Saint Christodoulos in the eleventh century, this land became known as a place of prayer and asceticism.

Many venerable personalities tied their names to the island of Patmos. In the 18th century St. Makarios Notaras began from here to collect texts from the library that would eventually be compiled in the Philokalia, which propelled a new dynamic spirit of Orthodox Spirituality.


The feast of the Synaxis of All Saints on the Sunday followng All Saints Sunday was established by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Below is a list of known Saints associated with Patmos:

1. St John the Theologian (26 September, 8 May).
2. St Christodoulos (16 March, 21 October).
3. Apostle Thomas (Sunday of Antipascha, 6 October).
4. St Gerasimos Byzantios (7 April).
5. St Antipas, Bishop of Pergamos (11 April).
6. St Pachomios the Russian (7 May).
7. St Leondios, Archbishop of Jerusalem (14 May).
8. St Philip the Deacon (11 October).
9. St Makarios the Kalogeras (19 January).
10. Hieromartyr Platon Aivazides (21 September).
11. St Prochoros (July 28)
12. St Gregory Gravanos (April 22)
13. St Jeremiah of Crete (Sunday after All Saints).
14. Assembly of the Saints of Patmos (Sunday after All Saints).