Our Church’s Outdoor Mosaic of Christ, the Holy Wisdom and Power of God –
Festal Icon Not-Made-By-Hands, and Feast Day of St. Sophia Orthodox Church, Canada.
Greetings on ThisWonderful Feast!
One of the earliest Icons witnessed to by Church Tradition is the Holy Mandylion (The Icon of Christ Not-Made-by-Hands) falls on Aug. 29/16. Mandylion is the Byzantine-Greek word for small towel or cloth (pronounced man-dee-lee-o), and The Holy Mandylion, is the miraculous Image known as the first icon, which our Lord Himself, produced .
On this day we celebrate the first century Icon of our Lord Jesus Christ Not-Made-by-Hands’ later transference from the city of Edessa to Constantinople, in the year 944. Unless the Feast falls upon the first Sunday after the Dormition, sometimes this feast is transferred to the closest Sunday after the Feast of the Dormition.
For the many churches named St. Sophia, (Sophia means the Holy Wisdom of God – Our Lord Jesus Christ) today is ours and their Name Day, as is also, the ancient the Feast Day of Mid-Pentecost.
In the mystical theology of the Orthodox Church, Wisdom is understood as the Divine Logos (God the Word), Who became Incarnate as Jesus Christ. The name St. Sophia comes from the Greek Ἁγία Σοφία (Hagia Sophia) and signifies “Holy Wisdom” meaning “Jesus Christ”…The Wisdom and Power of God. (1 Corinthians 1: 24,30; 1 Corinthians 2:7)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth…No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. ~ First chapter of 1 John
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. ~ St. John 21:25
About the Miracle
In the time that our Lord was preaching the gospel and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people, there was in the city of Edessa, on the banks of the Euphrates, a certain Prince Avgar, who was riddled with leprosy.*
He heard of Christ, the Healer of every pain and sickness, and sent a portrait-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. In the event of the Lord not being able to come, the prince commanded Ananias to paint His likeness and bring it, believing that the portrait would heal him.
The Lord replied that he could not come, (as the time of his Passion was at hand), and He took a large cloth, a napkin and wiped His face, leaving a perfect reproduction of His most pure face on the napkin. The Lord 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 later an envoy to rid him of the remainder of the disease. Receiving the napkin, Avgar kissed it and the leprosy fell from his body, with just a little remaining on his face.
Later, the Apostle Thaddeus, preaching the Gospel, came to Avgar, healed him secretly and baptized him. Then the prince smashed the idols that stood at the city’s gateway and placed the napkin with the face of Christ above the entrance, stuck onto wood, surrounded with a gold frame and ornamented with 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’.
Years afterwards, one of Avgar’s great-grandsons restored idolatry, and the Bishop of Edessa came by night and walled in the icon above the gateway to protect it. Centuries passed. In the time of the Emperor Justinian, the Persian King, Chozroes, attacked Edessa, and the city was in great affliction.
In 545, 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.
*Leprosy is a disease of the skin and nervous system. It spreads easily, and those with a weakened immune system are susceptible. Left untreated, it can cause severe, long term damage. Nowadays there are medical treatments that can prevent its spread.
Our Own Special Parish Icon
We have a large, beautiful Festal Icon of the Image Not Made by Hands, which is always kept on the stand to the right, at the front of the church. It’s in a large black frame and it shows Christ’s Precious Face.
We also have another special and smaller (seen above) Icon of the Image Not Made by Hands… which also has a big burn mark on it. This is its story…
Many years ago a Latvian-Canadian art historian named Masha* was sent by the Canadian government to give a seminar in Moscow. On her trip, she made a detour to Riga and met Olga* whose father had been in the Latvian militia, and a close associate of Lenin. As a child, Olga remembers playing four-handed Christmas carols on the piano with Lenin.
Olga took a liking to Masha, and as Masha was leaving to return to Canada, she gave her an old wooden icon, saying, “Here, I want you to have this. My Father picked it up from the floor in the Kremlin. The Red Army was smashing and burning everything they could lay their hands on. Monks were fleeing with whatever they could gather up in their arms. Everything was charred and broken, except this one piece, which although damaged, was intact. My father, on a whim, picked it up as a souvenir and brought it home. Now I want you to have it Masha.”
Although Masha was not an Orthodox Christian, she accepted the gift and smuggled it out of the USSR, knowing the airport X-Ray machine would just show a shape, resembling a book. Once Masha returned home again, the icon stayed for many years in a drawer, wrapped in plastic, until one day, Masha gave this icon to a friend of our parish, who in turn, presented the icon to Archpriest John and Matushka Sasha, as a gift, after relating its amazing history.
The Icon had “came home again”… for this Icon is none other than the Holy Mandylion (Greek for napkin or small towel), the Icon Not Made by Hands – our St. Sophia’s parish patronal Feast Day Icon!
* Masha’s and Olga’s names were changed at their request.
Troparion Tone 2 Melody, of Today’s Feast
We bow down, before Thine all pure Image O Good One, Asking forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ God; for Thou wast well pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh of Thine own will, that Thou mightest save what Thou hadst created from slavery to the enemy. Wherefore, we cry out to Thee in thanksgiving: Thou hast filled all things with joy, O our Saviour, Who hast come to save the world.
Kontakion in Tone 2 Melody, of Today’s Feast
O Uncircumscribable Word of the Father, knowing the victorious image, uninscribed and divinely wrought, of Thine ineffable and divine dispensation towards man, of Thy true Incarnation, we honour it with veneration.
A troparion and kontakion are short sung hymns (using certain melodies) which teach about a special saint, prophet or Feast Day.