St. John the Theologian, commonly identified with the Apostle John, was exiled on Patmos around 95 AD and received revelations from God by means of a voice from a cleft in the rock. It is thought by some scholars that John was from Ephesus, which is a short boat ride from Patmos and which received the first of the letters addressed to the  Seven Churches of Revelation.

A sanctuary and the Monastery of the Apocalypse were later built around the cave that tradition identified as the site of John's visions.