The poet, Robert Lax, born in Olean, and good friend of Trappist monk Thomas Merton, lived for many years in the Greek islands. His  hermitage on the island of Patmos is a rustic Greek house with a small bedroom, a living room with windows looking out to the harbor, a kitchen and simple bathroom, looking up to the famous
12th century Monastery of St. John.

S.T. Georgiou, in his book about Robert Lax, "The Way of the
Dreamcatcher" says:

"Sporadic lights illuminated the increasingly steep ascent.  The clean whitewashed homes stood out of the darkness and guided me onward and upward through wide and narrow passages ... Lax lived in a small white house situated toward the end of the steps ... Health must certainly have been with the old poet.  I was perspiring by the time I got to the end of the street and mounted a series of high stone steps.  For a few moments I paused to catch my breath and saw the faraway lights of the great Monastery of St. John twinkling like stars."