Patmos (or Patinos), is rarely mentioned by ancient authors -Thucydidis (3,33), Stravon (10,448)- epigraphically as “Patnos”. Some stipulate that its origin stems from the word “Fatne”- Patne=Fatne, while others say it stems from the name of the mountain Latmos of Asia Minor. This mountain was the place of adoration of the goddess Artemis and the hero and hunter Endimionas, and the first people of Patmos used to worship the goddess Artemis, hence the connection.

Later on, Patmos is mentioned in the work “Stadiasmus Maris Magni” (280-284) and “Ecumenical Tour” of Efstathios (530), as well as the Latin author Plinius (Natural history 4, 12,23). Apart from the fact that the ancient inhabitants of Patmos,as well as Leros had the goddess Artemis as their common protector, they were little known until the Roman times,wehre the island was used as a place of exile for political convicts. This is the character that the island retained until the Christian times, when the student of Jesus Saint John the Theologian was exiled. He wrote the Apocalypse under the guidance of God himself and the book (evangelio) named after himself,both holy books belonging to the New Testament, that Christians still worship the lord by. This is why he is called John the Evangelist.

During the tenth century Patmos seems to have had a tough time,being under the constant attacks of pirates, like every other island of the Aegean and it is commemorated as an indifferent and almost unhabitable island. The eleventh century brought about a lot of changes, a new life. This is when the monastery of Saint John the Theologian is established by the monk and later Saint Christodoulos.Much later he died in the lake of Evia, where one can visit and make a pilgrimage. During the 12th and 13th century the monastery has been looted and depredated by Venetians and pirates of the West, as well as people of Greek descent such as Margaritis Vredesinos, who tried to transfer the remains of the saint to a town in Italy called Brindisi.

After the fall of Constantinople, (1453), a lot of refugees fled to Patmos and a whole,evolved plantation formed, that of Chora.A few migrants arrived later and settled there, coming from Crete.The arrival of educated people on the island and the presence of distinctive personalities among the monks, as well as the privilege thrust upon them by the emperor Alexis to maintain a ship without having to pay taxes, gave them the key to the creation of glebes in Stylos in Crete and in Naxos. The contacts of the monks with the West and the islands that were colonized by the Venetians opened new horizons and made Patmos the center of the artistic influences of that time, with works from the most popular representatives of that era. This is why there is a wide range of impeccable icons in Patmos, dating back to the 14th century as well as the first wooden, Renaissance themed altar.

The inhabitants of Patmos, due to the barren land, were forced to turn to seafaring and trading having small ships to work with. Due to strictly professional reasons they always tried to maintain “a healthy relationship” with both the Ottomans and the Venetians, buying their peace, safety and freedom off with taxes and gifts that they constantly provided them with.

The 17th century was a time of glory for Patmos as the dynamic presence of the Monastery turned it into a nautical and trading center. In the course of the over twenty year Venetian-Turkish war,also called Cretan (1645-1669), Patmos was considered as one of the nautical stations of the Venetians. After the end of the war, Crete was handed over to the Ottoman Turks, as well as Patmos. Besides this turn of events, the Patmians continued acquiring more ships while the Monastery established the Patmian Ecclesiastic school, gaining more glory. Patmos, based on the saying of travelers at the time, seems to have had a lack of foreign inhabitants, it was occupied exclusively by Greeks.

In 1770 during the revolution of Orloff, Patmos was seized by the Russian fleet and in a population census of that time there were 510 houses and 2.086 people on the island. Following the concordance of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) Patmians took advantage of the presence of Russian diplomats in the Aegean and using the Russian flag they were constructing large boats to participate in sea trading.

Patmos, which was the birthplace of one of the founders of the Society of Friends Emmanuel Ksanthos, with the eruption of the revolution in the Peloponnese became a nautical revolutionary center and a lot of inhabitants took part in the fight for Greek Independence. The local revolutionists were initiated by the Patmian member of the Society of Friends Demetrios Themelis. In fact, Patmos was the second island after Spetses to rebel, on the 12th of April 1821 (Tuesday of the Bright Week) , with a ceremony taking place in the square of Agia Theoktisti Lesvias (the square of Chora with the church that exista until today and still has the same name). There was a shrine with the prominence of the Patmian Patriarch of Alexandria Theophilus, who held a speech.

Following the treaty of Constantinople (9 Jylu 1832), Patmos was once again under the posession of the Ottoman empire, and it remained until the year of 1912, when it was commandeered by the Italians.They were in charge until the fall of fascism, in the summer of 1943, when they were replaced by the Germans. They in turn, lasted until the fall of Nazism when they surrendered to the Allies. Last but not least, with the treaty of the 10th of February of 1947, Patmos was incorporated in Greece along with the other islands that were under Italian possession and together formed the general administration of the Dodecanese.