Icon of the Savior of the Holy Face - saving ancient relic

In the north-east of present-day Syria, between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, from the year 137 BC to the year 242 AD, there was a small state of Osroena, which was the first to declare Christianity the official state religion. Here, for the first time, the icon of the Savior of the Holy Face is mentioned.

Legend of the icon

According to numerous legends, the Osporan king Avgar V, whose residence was in the capital of the state of Edessa, fell ill with an incurable disease - black leprosy. In a dream, he was revealed that only the face of the Savior would help him. The court painter, sent to Christ, could not capture his image because of the divine effulgence coming from Jesus, who, going to meet the king's entreaties, washed his face with water and wiped himself with a towel (board). On it remained a bright image, called "Ubrus", or Mandylion, or the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands. That is, in the classical version, it represents the face of Christ, executed on the canvas, along the edges of which the canvas is let out, and the upper ends are knotted.

After the miraculous healing of Avgar, there is no mention of this icon until the year 545, when Edessa was captured by Persian troops. How often it happens, in difficult times, providence comes to the rescue. In the nave above the gates of the city were found not only the perfectly preserved icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, but also its imprint on the ceramic wall of the vault, or Ceramidion. The blockade of the city was filmed in the most wonderful way.

Features of the icon

This miraculous image in both its manifestations (executed both on canvas and on ceramics) has a number of features and customs associated with it. So, it is recommended for beginning icon painters as their first independent work.

The icon of the Savior of the Holy Face is the only image on which the halo around the head of Jesus has the form of a regular closed circle with the cross inside. All these details, as well as the color of the Savior's hair, the general background of the icon (on the most ancient icons the background has always remained pure), bear their semantic load.

There are opinions that the portrait, created without a brush and paints, which is, in its essence, the icon "The Savior Not Made by Hands", is a photo of Christ, capturing his face.

In Orthodoxy, this icon has always played a special role, from the moment of bringing its list from Constantinople in 1355. Although the most ancient icons of this species appeared in Russia in the 11th century, only from the second half of the 14th century everything connected with the "Savior Not Made by Hands" is positioned at the level of the state cult and is introduced everywhere. Under it are built temples, this face is depicted on the banners of Russian troops in the most decisive for the country battles - from Kulikovskaya to the battles of the First World War. The word "banner" is replaced gradually with the word "banner" (from the "sign"). Khorugvi with the image of the "Savior of the Holy Face" became an integral part of the victories of Russian weapons.

Icon "The Savior Not Made by Hands" today

The arrival of this miraculous icon, the glory of which spread throughout Russia, from the Novospassky monastery of the city of Vyatka to the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, has acquired a state scale and significance. Thousands of Muscovites and visitors came out to meet the icon and at the sight of it fell to their knees. Frolovsky gate, through which the icon was carried, began to be called Spassky. Pass through them could only be with uncovered head, as a sign of the divinity of the face.

"The Savior Not Made by Hands" is an icon whose meaning can not be overemphasized. It is perceived as one of the main symbols of Orthodoxy, on the meaning of meaning it is equated with the cross and the crucifixion.

In recent years, which are sometimes rightly called the Second Baptism of Rus, an unprecedented number of churches, monasteries and temples are being built. In Sochi, the Temple of the Savior Not Made by Hands was erected and consecrated on January 5, 2014, to open the Olympics in record time.