According to Christian tradition, the Image of Edessa was a holy relic made of cloth shaped like a square or rectangle. It showed a miraculous image of the face of Jesus Christ, and it was considered the first icon, which means "image." The image is also called the Mandylion, a Greek word meaning "cloth" or "towel." In Eastern Orthodoxy, it is also known as an Acheiropoieton, a Greek term meaning "icon not made by hand."

In a story from the early 4th century written by Eusebius of Caesarea, King Abgar of Edessa wrote to Jesus, asking him to come and heal him of an illness. Jesus replied, saying he could not come but promised that one of his disciples would visit later. A disciple named Thaddeus of Edessa arrived, bringing Jesus’ message. The king was miraculously healed by this message. Eusebius said he had copied and translated the actual letter from the Syriac documents of the king’s court, but he did not mention an image. The story of an image connected to King Abgar first appeared in a Syriac text called the Doctrine of Addai. In this version, the messenger, named Ananias, was also a painter who created the portrait. This image was taken to Edessa and kept in the royal palace.

The first written record of a physical image in the ancient city of Edessa (now called Urfa) was made by Evagrius Scholasticus around 593. He described a portrait of Christ that was believed to have divine origin (θεότευκτος) and helped protect Edessa from the Persians in 544. The image was later moved to Constantinople in the 10th century. It was lost when Constantinople was attacked in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. Some people believe it later appeared as a relic in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, owned by King Louis IX of France. This relic was likely destroyed during the French Revolution due to efforts to remove religious symbols.

Eusebius did not describe where the Edessa letter came from or where it was kept during his time. According to scholar Robert Eisenman, the story of the letter is found in many Syriac sources, with so many different versions that it is hard to believe they all came from Eusebius’ original account.

The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates a special feast on August 16 to honor this icon. The feast marks the day the image was moved from Edessa to Constantinople.

History of the legend

The story of the Mandylion likely developed over many years. The earliest version appears in Eusebius's History of the Church (1.13.5–1.13.22). Eusebius claimed he copied and translated a real letter from the Syriac chancery documents of the king of Edessa. This letter was written by King Abgar of Edessa to Jesus, asking him to come and heal him of an illness. Jesus responded by letter, saying he would send a disciple, Thaddeus of Edessa, to heal Abgar after completing his mission on Earth and ascending to heaven. At this time, no image of Jesus was mentioned.

In AD 384, Egeria, a traveler from Gaul or Spain, visited Edessa. The bishop showed her many stories about miracles that saved the city from the Persians and gave her copies of the letters between Abgar and Jesus, which included added details. Egeria believed this version was more complete than one she had read earlier. She was accompanied by a translator and saw places described in the letters, such as the gate where a messenger named Ananias brought Jesus’s letter. However, Egeria did not mention seeing any image during her three-day visit to Edessa and its surroundings.

A later version, called the Doctrine of Addai (around 400), added a new detail: a court painter in Abgar’s delegation painted a portrait of Jesus to take back to Abgar.

The later legend describes how Abgar’s successors turned to paganism, so the bishop hid the miraculous image inside a wall. He placed a burning lamp before the image and sealed it behind a tile. Later, the image was discovered again on the night of a Persian invasion. It had reproduced itself on the tile, and the lamp still burned. The bishop used oil that flowed from the image to create a fire that destroyed the Persians.

The image is said to have been found in 525 during a flood of the Daisan, a river near Edessa. This event is mentioned by Procopius of Caesarea, a historian of that time. During repairs after the flood, a cloth with the face of a man was found hidden in a wall near one of Edessa’s gates.

Writing after the Persian siege of 544, Procopius noted that Jesus’s letter, which now promised that "no enemy would ever enter the city," was inscribed on a city gate. However, he did not mention an image. Procopius doubted the letter’s authenticity, but the Persian king Khosrau I wanted to prove it false. The Syriac Chronicle of Edessa, written between 540 and 550, also mentions divine help during the siege but does not describe the image.

About fifty years later, Evagrius Scholasticus wrote in his Ecclesiastical History (593) that the image helped save Edessa from a siege. He called it a "God-made image," a miraculous imprint of Jesus’s face on a cloth. This version of the story, where the image was created by Jesus pressing a cloth to his wet face, became the accepted version in Eastern Orthodoxy. The idea that the image was "not made by human hands" (Acheiropoietos in Greek) was an addition to the original legend. Similar stories about icons created by divine means exist for other Orthodox icons.

The Ancha icon is believed to be the Keramidion, another Acheiropoietos. It is said to have been imprinted with Christ’s face through contact with the Mandylion. Art historians believe it is a Georgian icon from the 6th or 7th century.

According to the Golden Legend, a collection of religious stories written by Jacobus de Voragine in the 13th century, King Abgar sent a letter to Jesus, who replied by sending Thaddeus of Edessa to heal him. The same work adds:

Later events

The Holy Mandylion disappeared again after the Sassanians conquered Edessa in 609. A local legend, shared with historian Andrew Palmer during his visit to Urfa (Edessa) in 1997, says the towel or burial cloth (منديل mendil) of Jesus was thrown into a well now located in the city's Great Mosque. However, the Christian tradition described by Georgios Kedrenos in Historiarum compendium differs. John Scylitzes wrote that in 944, when the city was attacked by John Kourkouas, the Mandylion was traded for Muslim prisoners. At that time, the Image of Edessa was taken to Constantinople, where it was welcomed by Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos. He placed it in the Theotokos of the Pharos chapel in the Great Palace of Constantinople. Notably, the earliest known Byzantine icon of the Mandylion or Holy Face, kept at Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt, dates to around 945.

The Mandylion remained under Imperial protection until the Crusaders attacked the city in 1204, taking many treasures to Western Europe. However, no contemporary documents mention the "Image of Edessa" in this context. It has also been claimed that the Shroud of Turin left Constantinople in 1204 during the Crusaders' looting. The Crusader leaders were French and Italian (from Venice), and it is believed the Shroud eventually reached France. A small piece of a relic, possibly linked to this, was sold by Baldwin II of Constantinople to Louis IX of France in 1241. It was kept in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris (not to be confused with the Sainte-Chapelle in Chambéry, which briefly held the Shroud of Turin) until it was lost during the French Revolution.

In 1637, the Portuguese Jesuit Jerónimo Lobo, visiting Rome, mentioned a sacred portrait sent to King Abgar. He described seeing relics preserved in a city, including a large part of the holy cross, pieces of the crown and thorns, the sponge, the lance, Saint Thomas's finger, one of the thirty coins used to betray Jesus, the sacred portrait sent to King Abgar, the sacred staircase used by Jesus, the head of Saint John the Baptist, the Column, the Altar where Saint Peter celebrated Mass, and many other relics.

• The katholikon of Andronikov Monastery is the oldest building in Moscow (outside the Kremlin) and one of many Russian churches dedicated to the Holy Mandylion.
• The Saviour Not Made by Hands, an icon from the Novgorod school, dates to around 1100.

Surviving images

Three images are known today that are connected to the Mandylion.

Author Ian Wilson has suggested that the object worshipped as the Mandylion from the 6th to the 13th centuries was actually the Shroud of Turin, folded into four parts and placed inside a rectangular frame so only the face was visible. Wilson refers to documents in the Vatican Library and the University of Leiden, Netherlands, which seem to describe another image in Edessa. A 10th-century book, Codex Vossianus Latinus Q 69, discovered by Gino Zaninotto in the Vatican Library, includes an 8th-century account stating that an imprint of Christ’s entire body was found on a cloth kept in a church in Edessa. This account quotes a man named Smera in Constantinople: “King Abgar received a cloth on which one can see not only a face but the whole body” (Latin: [non tantum] faciei figuram sed totius corporis figuram cernere poteris).

This image is currently kept in the Church of St. Bartholomew of the Armenians in Genoa, Italy. In the 14th century, it was given to the doge of Genoa, Leonardo Montaldo, by the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaeologus.

A detailed study from 1969 by Colette Dufour Bozzo determined that the outer frame of the image dates to the late 14th century, setting a time limit for when the inner frame and the image itself were created. Bozzo found that the image was printed on a cloth that had been glued to a wooden board.

The image’s resemblance to the Veil of Veronica suggests a connection between these two traditions.

This image was kept in Rome’s church of San Silvestro in Capite, attached to a convent of Poor Clares, until 1870. It is now displayed in the Matilda chapel of the Vatican Palace. It is enclosed in a Baroque frame added by Sister Dionora Chiarucci, the head of the convent, in 1623. The earliest record of its existence is from 1517, when the nuns were told not to show it to avoid competition with the Veil of Veronica. Like the Genoa image, it is painted on a wooden board, making it likely a copy. It was shown at Germany’s Expo 2000 in the pavilion of the Holy See.

• The Holy Face of Genoa.
• The Holy Face of Genoa with the face more visible.
• The image from San Silvestro (Matilda chapel in the Vatican Palace).
• The San Silvestro image with the face more visible.

Veil of Veronica

Historian Rebecca Rist explains that Pope Innocent III encouraged people to honor Saint Veronica partly to compete with a religious relic in Constantinople called the Mandylion. This was done to raise the importance of Rome and its pope by claiming a similar relic, the Veil of Veronica, which is said to be a cloth that touched Jesus’ face.

In later Western European traditions, the main image of Jesus’ face that was not made by human hands became known as the Veil of Veronica. This cloth is believed to have been given to Jesus by Saint Veronica to wipe his face as he walked to his crucifixion. The name "Veronica" may come from "true image" in Latin ("vera icon") or from a Greek phrase meaning "bearer of blessing." Because the story about Saint Veronica appeared later than some other stories, some scholars are more doubtful about its truth.

A cloth believed to be the Veil of Veronica is currently kept in the Vatican. It is said to have been brought to Italy during the Crusades. The Veil of Veronica, also called the Sudarium (meaning "sweat-cloth") in Latin, is often referred to as "The Veronica" or "Holy Face" in Italian. It is not to be confused with a carved crucifix also called the Volto Santo in Lucca. This relic is said to be a piece of cloth that, according to tradition, shows the image of Jesus’ face. Some existing images have been claimed to be the original relic or early copies of it.

Scholars sometimes mix up accounts of the Veil of Veronica and the Image of Edessa.

General and cited references

• Cameron, Averil. "The History of the Image of Edessa: The Telling of a Story." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7 (Okeanos: Essays presented to Ihor Sevcenko on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students) (1983): 80-94.
• Dufour Bozzo, Colette (1974), Il "Sacro Volto" di Genova (in Italian), Ist. Nazionale di Archeologia, ISBN 88-7275-074-1
• Eusebius of Caesarea. "Epistle of Jesus Christ to Abgarus King of Edessa." Historia Ecclesiae.
• Eisenman, Robert, 1997. James the Brother of Jesus (Viking Penguin). In part a deconstruction of the legends surrounding Agbar/Abgar.
• Hall, James, Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, 1996 (2nd edn.), John Murray, ISBN 0719541476
• Kitzinger, Ernst, "The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 8, (1954), pp. 83–150, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, JSTOR 1291064.
• Wilson, Ian (1991), Holy Faces, Secret Places, Garden City: Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-26105-5
• Westerson, Jeri (2008), Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir, New York: Minotaur Books, ISBN 9780312580124 Fiction referencing the Mandyllon.
• Nicolotti, Andrea (2014), From the Mandylion of Edessa to the Shroud of Turin: The Metamorphosis and Manipulation of a Legend, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 9789004269194