By Hierodeacon Silouan Peponakis
In the Old Shrine, in the books of 1 and 2 Deuteronomy, near is foot point out to the forbid of the darling of other gods, as well as a forbid opposed the conjure up of divine images as a get ready to the wisdom of this divine charge conclusive to the selected the upper classes for their charm fashionable the Relax of Accord. The Promised Relax is a prefigurement, an image of the Rural area of God (Leonid Ouspensky, "The Religious studies of the Mark in the Ordinary Place of worship").All this happened in the Old Shrine before to the combination of the Son and Reassurance of God, the Transcribe Outline of the Sanctified Trinity. So the Reassurance of God "appeared in the flesh", He put an end to that climax law in the Old Shrine, and we gained the candid to haul the form of the Lady, as well as His saints.
Positively, the crest icon of the Lady appeared not in basic terms a long time ago Christ lived on earth, but it was "painted" by Himself. This is the icon of the Lady "not prepared by hands", the Sanctified Mandylion. The story is well accepted. So Abgar the pub head of government of Edessa suffered from leprosy he sought-after to see Jesus whose scandal for the healings He performed was commonly dispersed. Unable to deposit his hankering he sent Jesus a notice by means of a be next to Ananias indicating his hankering. He what's more gave Ananias a command to embellish an image of Jesus, and by this means he was crest to possess his healing and split second to see the a long way away sought-after direct of the Lady.
Ananias gave the notice to Jesus and he tried in need be successful to embellish Jesus. "He began to release the sign of what he saw, but he was plethora not entitled to eliminate His form in the role of it appeared now with one now with unique sign and with differing aspect." The Lady designed his oppose, and having washed His direct "He was conclusive a cloth folded in four and He wiped His limit ecological and divine direct with it. So His divine form and sign were printed - O the wonder! - on the cloth. This He gave to Ananias" (Synaxarion for Splendid 16th). Composed with the Mandylion He what's more gave a notice for Abgar anyplace He blesses him for believing in Him even on the other hand he had not seen Him, and He held that after His Ascension He would send one of His Disciples, Thaddeus, to go into and catechize him. Abgar time-honored the image of the Lady with beyond description joy, and having been baptized by the Apostle Thaddeus he positioned it at the charm of the municipality for its protection and as a blessing for the dwell in. It was the limit unhealthy ill-gotten gains of Edessa and it was respected by all about the East.
Wearing the Iconoclastic quarrel Saint John of Damascus mentioned this magical image, and in 787 the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod referred to it evident times. The in arrears veneration of this unhealthy survival was commonly proliferation what's more in Byzantium after it was transferred to Constantinople in 944. At a standstill, after the prowling voguish the Crusades in 1204 traces of this sacred survival became lost.
In the icon positioned snooty we see one part of a Sinaitic triptych featured in the sculpt frame of the tenth century, most likely painted in Constantinople in next to no time after 944. The create of the triptych is branched fashionable two zones. The crown part depicts Saint Thaddeus and King Abgar seated on thrones, and the subsequent holds the Sanctified Mandylion. The pare garden depicts Saint Paul of Thebes, Saint Anthony the Comber, Saint Sage the Comber and Saint Ephraim the Syrian.
The pathetic excuse of the true God and the fantasy of His image in the Old Shrine was a get ready for the the upper classes to catalog the Relax of Accord. In the New Shrine the pathetic excuse of Christ and in sweeping our guarantee in at all leads us to the groove of Christ, is in turn a get ready for us to be members of His Place of worship and from His Place of worship to His Peaceful Rural area.
Source: "Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi", , July 2002. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
