What is the Mandylion?

Answer

According to an extrabiblical legend in Eastern Orthodoxy, the Mandylion is a piece of cloth believed to bear a miraculous image of the face of Jesus Christ. The Mandylion is regarded as the “first icon” by Orthodox Christians. Icon simply means “image”; Mandylion, also spelled Mandilion, originates from a Greek word for “towel” or “napkin” and a Middle French word for “small cloak.”

The legend of the sacred Mandylion, also known as the Image of Edessa, evolved over centuries. It stems from the writings of the ancient Christian historian Eusebius of Caesarea (circa AD 260–340), who authored Historia Ecclesiastica (“History of the Church”). Although Eusebius never mentioned the existence of an actual cloth or physical image, he did recount a story that, with time, flourished and gave rise to the venerated relic.

Eusebius mentioned that during Jesus’ ministry on earth, King Abgar V of Edessa (in modern-day Turkey) learned of Christ’s miraculous healing powers and concluded that Jesus must be either God or the Son of God. The king sent a letter to Jesus, imploring the Lord to come and cure him of his leprosy. Christ’s written response supposedly commended Abgar’s faith but declined the invitation. Instead, Jesus promised to send one of His disciples later, after finishing His earthly mission and ascending into heaven. (Eusebius claimed to have discovered Christ’s letter in the archives of Edessa and then translated it.)

In the late fourth century and early fifth century, the narrative progressed further through the Doctrine of Addai. This Syriac text recounts how King Abgar was put in contact with Jesus. The account of Addai (translated as “Thaddeus”) differed from Eusebius’s version in that Jesus provided an oral response (rather than a letter) aimed at converting and healing the king. The superstition continued to expand. One legend was that there was an i

Image of Jesus Christ associated with the Letter of King Abgar. Initially, it was said that the picture was painted by a court painter in Edessa who had actually seen Christ, or that Jesus had painted the likeness Himself. Later, the story took on the miraculous detail that the portrait appeared on its own and that it was the image that cured King Abgar. The monk John of Damascus provided even more fantastic details, saying that Jesus had pressed His face into a cloth, causing the image to appear. This image of Jesus, called the Image of Edessa or the Holy Face of Edessa, is the Mandylion of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The king allegedly kept the portrait in his royal palace.

Intertwined in the evolving lore of the Mandylion is the legend of Veronica, the woman who supposedly presented her headcloth to Jesus as He passed her on His way to be crucified. According to the legend, when the Lord handed the cloth back to her, the image of His face was miraculously impressed on it.

The Mandylion was lost for centuries but purportedly resurfaced in AD 525, after a flood that occurred in Edessa. According to court historian Procopius of Caesarea, during repairs to the city’s floodgates, workers discovered a cloth hidden in the walls of one of the gates. Imprinted on the fabric was the visage of a man. During the tenth century, the relic was moved to Constantinople and remained there until the city was besieged in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. A fragment of the Mandylion was believed to have been acquired by Louis IX of France in 1241 and kept in Paris until it disappeared again during the French Revolution.

By the sixth century, the long-evolving story of the Mandylion was adopted by the Eastern Orthodox Church not as a legend, nor as an object made by human hands, but as a historically factual, supernatural image of Jesus Christ. During the month of August, the Eastern Orthodox Church observes a feast for the Mandylion that commemorates the move of the icon “Not-Made-By-Hands” from Edessa to Constantinople.

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