Our Venerable Father Christódoulos 1) was born near Nicaea of Bithynia circa
1020. His parents' names were Theodore and Anna, and their son received the name John in Holy Baptism. He was renowned as
an ascetic and a physician throughout the Byzantine Empire.
In 1043 he was tonsured
on Mount Olympus, where, under the guidance of the Elders, he received a broad education. After the death of his Spiritual
Father, he made a pilgrimage to the holy places in 1045. He visited Rome and Palestine, and he lived in Asia Minor, and on
some Greek islands, where he founded several monasteries.
After the Saracen invasion
of Palestine, Father Christódoulos left the Holy Land and in 1070 settled on Mount Latmos, in the stavropegial Monastery
of the Theotokos in northwestern Karia. Soon he was chosen as the Superior of that monastery. In 1076, Patriarch Cosmas I
of Constantinople installed Father Christódoulos as Archimandrite over all the Latmian monasteries. From 1076–1079,
he labored to build and fortify monasteries.
In 1079 the Latmian
monasteries were destroyed by the Seljuk Turks. The Saint took refuge with his small community in the city of Strovilos on
the Aegean coast, where the hermit Arsenios placed him in charge of his monastery. Father Christódoulos soon moved
to the nearby island of Kos, the least affected by Muslim incursions. There Arsenios had several estates, and on Mount Pelion,
at the latter's suggestion, Christódoulos founded the Kastrian Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1080.
In 1087, he founded a monastery on the neighboring island of Leros. In addition,
during his stay on the island of Kos, Saint Christódoulos organized an expedition to Mount Latmos in order to rescue
the books from the monastic community which he had abandoned. These books were sent to the library of the Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople for safekeeping.
Seeking greater solitude and austerity, Saint Christódoulos
turned his attention to the island of Patmos. He was so struck by the ascetic spirit of these places that he decided to establish
a monastery on that island. In 1089, he submitted his first application to Emperor Alexios I Komnenos for a new monastic community
on the island of Patmos, in place of the land on the island Kos and on the shores of Karia.
According to a Chrysobull issued in 1088, the Emperor gave the island of Patmos to Father Christódoulos as
an eternal, inalienable property, exempting it from all taxes. It forbade government officials to act on the island. In fact,
the island was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the state's administration, and all judicial and administrative power on
this island was concentrated in the hands of the Igoumen of the Monastery.
The Venerable one established a monastery on a mountain near the cave, where, according to Tradition, the Holy Apostle
John the Theologian received a divine revelation and wrote his prophetic book in the years 68-69. The monastery was built
on a rocky ledge, almost in the center of the island, and during the first three years, it had acquired the appearance of
a fortress.
However, in the last years of his life, because of the
raids of pirates, the Saint was forced to flee Patmos. He and his disciples went to the island of Euboea, where he reposed
on March 16,1093. Shortly before his death, he gave his disciples instructions to bury him on the island of Patmos in the
Monastery he founded. His disciples took his holy and incorrupt relics and transferred them to his own Monastery, where they
remain for the sanctification of those who venerate them with faith.
Saint Christódoulos is also commemorated on October 21 (the transfer of his holy relics).
1 His name means "the servant of Christ."
