August: Day 16: Teaching 1: The Transfer From Edessa of the Icon Not Made By Hands of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Known as the Holy Mandylion

August: Day 16: Teaching 1:
The Transfer From Edessa of the Icon Not Made by Hands of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, Known as the Holy Mandylion
 
(On the Veneration of Icons)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. At the end of the Gospel of John we read that “there are many other things which Jesus did, which are not written in these books,” namely the Gospels (John 21:25). One of these miraculous acts of Jesus Christ, not written in the Gospel, serves, brethren, as the basis for this feast.

The rumour reached Abgar, the ruler of Edessa, who, as an ancient tradition says, suffered from an incurable disease, that an extraordinary man called Jesus had appeared in Judea, who healed all diseases with a single word. Moved by the desire for health, Abgar immediately sent one of his servants, named Ananias, who was well versed in the art of painting, with a letter to the great Miracle Worker, which contained an invitation to come to Edessa to give healing to its owner. At the same time, Ananias was ordered to bring back, unknown to the Miracle Worker, an image of His face. Ananias successfully fulfilled one part of his assignment: he handed over the letter of his master, and received a letter in response, which said that the Divine Miracle Worker was to remain permanently in Judea until the day of His ascension to heaven, but that after this event one of His apostles would be sent to Abgar with salvation not only of the body, but also of the soul. But the other part of the assignment - to take an image of the face of Jesus - Ananias could not fulfill at all: the Divine image remained above all the efforts of art, and the artist could not find the desired resemblance in his image to the great original. The Knower of Hearts saw all this and did not want the labor of Ananias and the zeal of his master to remain unrewarded. Having deliberately washed His face with water in his presence, He wiped it with a kerchief - and suddenly on this kerchief with all precision His divine image was imprinted, which constituted a most precious gift for the owner of Edessa. After the Savior's ascension into heaven, the promise concerning the message of the apostle to Abgar was fulfilled. Thaddeus, one of the seventy apostles, having reached Edessa, gave him healing from his bodily affliction, and at the same time brought him and his subjects eternal salvation, baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus. And the image of the Savior not made by hands, even after the death of Abgar, for a long time formed an impenetrable wall for Edessa from enemies visible and invisible, until it was acquired as a precious treasure by Romanos, the Greek emperor, and transferred to Constantinople on the sixteenth day of the month of August - on which occasion the present feast began.

"Like Drops of Blood": The Shocking 1992 Miracle on an Icon of Christ in the Church of Saint Euthymios of Kypseli

In Kypseli, the former art district, which was the most beautiful and expensive suburb of Athens, where to buy a house it would cost you a fortune, in March 1992, between Meatfare Sunday and Cheesefare Sunday, a miracle happened in the Church of Saint Euthymios (the parish priest at that time was the late Father Demetrios Kloutsos, spiritual child of Metropolitan Augoustinos Kantiotis).

Blood and myrrh appeared on an icon of Christ the Savior.

Chemists came from all over the world to examine whether the blood was paint or some human trick, but they were surprised to find that it was natural human blood.

The church was open day and night, with people coming from as far as Sydney and Jerusalem, as news of the miracle had immediately spread; they made a stop in Athens to venerate the Miraculous Icon of Jesus Christ on their knees with tears in their eyes.

Two Weeping Icons In Mytilene That Drew Thousands of Believers Currently Under Investigation

Crowds of people were flocking every day for about 20 days to the Church of Saint Ephraim of Nea Makri in the neighborhood of Kallithea in Mytilene to venerate the icons of Saint Paraskevi and Saint Ephraim, which are reported to be "weeping" according to the testimonies of those in charge of the church as well as various believers who are eyewitnesses.

According to media reports, during the Divine Liturgy on Pentecost Sunday, the priest was interrupted when he was called by the faithful to explain the phenomenon.

The icon of Saint Ephraim appears to have had a liquid that seems to have run down from the face of the Saint, but it became dry and to see it one must look at the icon from the side where it is clearly visible.