Eastern Rite - Feasts of 16 August AM 7529

Today is the Afterfeast of the Dormition, the Feasts of the Transfer from Edessa to Constantinople of the Holy Icon “Not Made with Hands” of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, also called the Holy Veil, and of the Holy Martyr Diomedes.

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In today’s hymns at Vespers, the Mother of God is praised as the “only created being to pass from earth to heaven in the flesh.”

Troparion — Tone 1

In giving birth you preserved your virginity, / in falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. / You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, / and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Neither the tomb, nor death could hold the Theotokos, / who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions. / For being the Mother of Life, / she was translated to life by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb.

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The Transfer of the Icon of our Lord Jesus Christ Not-Made-by-Hands from Edessa to Constantinople occurred in the year 944. Eusebius, in his History of the Church (I:13), relates that when the Savior was preaching, Abgar was the ruler of Edessa. He was stricken with leprosy all over his body. Reports of the great miracles performed by the Lord spread throughout Syria (Mt.4:24) and even reached Abgar. Without having seen the Savior, Abgar believed in Him as the Son of God. He wrote a letter requesting Him to come and heal him. He sent his own portrait painter Ananias to Palestine with this letter and commissioned him to paint a likeness of the Divine Teacher.

Ananias arrived in Jerusalem and saw the Lord surrounded by many people. He was not able to get close to Him because of the large crowd which had gathered to hear the Savior. Then he stood on a high rock and tried to paint Christ's portrait from afar, but this attempt did not succeed. Then the Savior saw him, called him by name, and gave him a short letter for Abgar in which He praised the ruler's faith. He also promised to send His disciple to heal him of his leprosy and guide him to salvation.

Then the Lord asked for some water and a cloth to be brought to Him. After washing His Face, He dried it with the cloth, and His Divine countenance was imprinted upon it. Ananias brought the cloth and the Savior's letter to Edessa. Reverently, Abgar pressed the holy object to his face and received partial healing. Only a small trace of the terrible affliction remained until the arrival of the disciple promised by the Lord. This was Saint Thaddeus, an Apostle of the Seventy (August 21), who preached the Gospel and baptized Abgar and all the people of Edessa. Abgar attached the Holy Napkin to a board and placed it in a gold frame adorned with pearls. Then he placed it in a niche above the city gates. On the gateway over the Icon, he inscribed the words, “O Christ God, let no one who hopes on Thee be put to shame.”

For many years the inhabitants had the pious custom of bowing down before the Icon whenever they went forth from the gates. Later, one of Abgar's great-grandsons, who ruled Edessa, fell into idolatry and decided to remove the Icon from the city wall and to replace it with an idol. In a vision, the Lord ordered the Bishop of Edessa to hide His Icon. The bishop came by night with his clergy, lit a lampada before the Icon, and placed a ceramic tile in front of the Icon to protect it, and then he sealed the niche with bricks.

As time passed, the people forgot about the Icon. But in the year 545, when the Persian emperor Chosroes I besieged Edessa and the city's position seemed hopeless, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to Bishop Eulabios and ordered him to remove the Icon from the sealed niche, saying that it would save the city from the enemy. When he opened the niche, the bishop found the Holy Mandylion, and the lampada was still burning before the Icon, and an exact copy was produced upon the tile protecting the Icon.

The Persians lit a huge fire outside the city walls. Bishop Eulabios carried the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands around the city walls, and a violent wind turned the flames back on the Persians. The defeated Persian army retreated from the city.

In his Church History, the sixth-century writer Evagrios Scholastikos refers to the Holy Mandylion (or Napkin) as The Icon made by God (Η θεοτεύκος εἰκών).

In the year 630 Arabs seized Edessa, but they did not hinder the veneration of the Holy Napkin, the fame of which had spread throughout the entire East. In the year 944, the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos (912-959) wanted to transfer the Icon to Constantinople, so he paid a ransom to the emir of the city for it. With great reverence, the Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands and the letter which He had written to Abgar, were brought to Constantinople by clergy.

On August 16, the icon of the Savior was placed in the Pharos Church of the Most Holy Theotokos. There are several traditions concerning what happened later to the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands. According to one, Crusaders stole it during the occupation of Constantinople (1204-1261), but the ship on which the sacred object was taken, perished in the waters of the Sea of Marmora.

According to another tradition, the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was transported to Genoa in 1362, where it is preserved in a monastery dedicated to the Apostle Bartholomew. It is known that the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands repeatedly produced exact copies of itself. One of these, named “On the tile,” was made when Ananias hid the Icon in the wall on his way to Edessa. Another, imprinted on a cloak, wound up in Georgia. Possibly, the various traditions about the original Icon Is explained by the existence of several exact copies.

During the time of the Iconoclast heresy, the defenders of the holy icons, who shed their blood for them, sang the Troparion to the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands. In proof of the validity of venerating icons, Pope Gregory II (715-731) sent a letter to the Byzantine Emperor, in which he mentioned Abgar's healing and the sojourn of the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands at Edessa as a commonly known fact.

The Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was put on the standards of the Russian army, in order to protect them from the enemy. In the Russian Church, it is a pious custom for a believer to read the Troparion for the Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands when entering the temple, together with other prayers.

According to the Prologue, there are four known Icons of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands:

1. Abgar's original Icon at Edessa (August 16).
2. The one at Kamuliana (Καμουλιανά), which is mentioned by Saint Gregory of Nyssa (January 10).
3. According to Saint Νikόdēmos of the Holy Mountain (July 14), the Kamuliana Icon appeared in the year 392, but it resembled an icon of the Mother of God (August 9).
4. During the reign of Emperor Tiberius (578-582), Saint Mary Synklitike (August 11) was healed by the Icon on the tile (August 16).

The Feast of the Transfer of the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands is observed along with the Afterfeast of the Dormition. The commemoration of the third Icon Not-Made-by-Hands mentioned above is called the “The Savior on Linen Cloth.”

The particular reverence for this Feast in the Russian Church is also expressed in iconography, and the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was one of the most widely distributed.

Troparion — Tone 2

We venerate Your most pure image, O Good One, / and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ God. / Of Your own will You were pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh / to deliver Your creatures from bondage to the Enemy. / Therefore with thanksgiving, we cry aloud to You: / “You have filled all with joy, O our Savior, / by coming to save the world.”

Kontakion — Tone 2

Uncircumscribed Word of the Father / as we behold the victorious image of Your true incarnation, / not made by hands, but divinely wrought / in Your ineffable and divine dispensation towards us, / we honor it with veneration!

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The Martyr Diomedes was born in Cilician Tarsus. He was a physician and a Christian, and he treated not only the ills of the body but also of the soul. He enlightened many pagans with belief in Christ and baptized them. The Church venerates him as a healer and mentions him during the Mystery of Holy Unction.

St Diomedes travelled much, converting people to the true Faith. When he arrived in the city of Nicea, the emperor Diocletian (284-305) sent soldiers to arrest him. Along the way from Nicea to Nicomedia, he got down from the cart so as to pray, and he died.

As proof of carrying out their orders, the soldiers cut off his head but became blinded. Diocletian gave orders to take the head back to the body. When the soldiers fulfilled the order, their sight was restored and they believed in Christ.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your holy martyr Diomedes, O Lord, / through his sufferings has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. / For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries, / and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. / Through his intercessions, save our souls!

Kontakion — Tone 2

(Podoben: “You sought the heights...”)
You appeared as a bright star announcing Christ with your radiance, / which is repulsive to this world, O Martyr Diomedes; / extinguishing the allure of false gods, / you enlighten the faithful, / always interceding for us all.