The Holy Shroud -- "Christ Made Without Hands"
Feast Day of the Translation of the Image of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
August 16th.

"King Abgar (Abgar V Ukhama), a leper, had sent to Christ his archivist Hannan (Ananias) with a letter in which he asked Christ to come to Edessa (a small country between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) to heal him. Hannan was a painter; and in case Christ refused to come, Abgar had advised Hannan to make a portrait of the Lord and bring it to him. Hannan found Christ surrounded by a large crowd; he climbed a rock from which he could see Him better. He tried to make His portrait but did not succeed 'because of the indescribable glory of His face which was changing through grace.' Seeing that Hannan wanted to make His portrait, Christ asked for some water, washed Himself, and wiped His face with a piece of linen on which His features remained fixed. He gave the linen to Hannan to carry it with a letter to the one who had sent him. In His letter, Christ refused to go to Edessa Himself, but promised Abgar to send him one of His disciples, once His mission had ended. Upon receiving the portrait, Abgar was cured of the most serious symptoms of his disease, though several marks remained on his face. After Pentecost, the apostle Thaddeus, one of the seventy, came to Edessa. He completely healed the king and converted him. Abgar had an idol removed from above one of the town gates and the holy image was placed there. But his great-grandson reverted to paganism and wanted to destroy it. The bishop of the town had it walled in, after having placed a burning lamp inside the niche. As time passed, the hiding place was forgotten, but it was rediscovered when Cosroes, king of the Persians, besieged the city in 544 or 545. The lamp was still burning. Not only was the image intact, but it had also been imprinted on the inner side of the tile which concealed it. In memory of this event, we now have two types of icons of the Holy Face: one where the face of the Savior is represented on a piece of linen (above), another where there is no linen, but where there is only the Holy Face as it was imprinted on the tile. The only thing that is known about this icon on the tile is that it was found in Hierapolis (Mabbug), in Syria. Emperor Nicephorus Phocas is said to have brought it to Constantinople in 965 or 968."

--from Theology of the Icon, by Leonid Ouspensky, vol. I , pp. 51-52. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Press, 1992.