 Holy Napkin, or Face Not Made With Hands In the time that our Lord was preaching the Gospel and healing the people, there was in the city of Edessa, Prince Avgar, who was riddled with leprosy. {In those days, Edessa, Syria. Today known as Urfa, Turkey.} He had heard of Christ the Healer and sent a painter, Ananias, to Palestine with a letter to Christ, in which he begged the Lord to come to Edessa and heal him of his leprosy. If the Lord could not come, Ananias was to paint His likeness and bring it, believing that the portrait would heal Avgar. As the Lord's time of Passion was at hand, He took a napkin and wiped His face, leaving a perfect reproduction of His most pure face on the napkin. He gave this napkin to Ananias, with a message to say that the prince would be healed by it, but not entirely, and He would therefore send him an envoy who would rid him of the remainder of the disease. Receiving the napkin, Prince Avgar kissed it and the leprosy fell from his body, with just a little remaining on his face. (Later, the Apostle Thaddaeus came to Prince Avgar and healed him.) The prince smashed the idols that stood at the city's gateway and placed the napkin with the face of Christ above the entrance, surrounded with gold and pearls. The prince also wrote above the icon on the gateway: 'O Christ our God, no one who hopes in Thee will be put to shame.' Later, one of Avgar's great-grandsons restored idolatry, and the Bishop of Edessa came by night and walled-in the icon above the gateway. Centuries passed. In the time of the Emperor Justinian, Edessa was attacked. The Bishop of Edessa, Eulabius, had a vision of the most holy Mother of God, who revealed to him the secret of the icon, walled-in and forgotten. The icon was found, and by its power the Persian army was defeated. .  Close Window |