ACHEROPITA (from δχειροποίητος, literally “not made by human hand,” and in the proper sense “a true [not false] image of Christ”). — Antiquity already believed that the statues of Pallas in Athens and Troy and that of Artemis in Ephesus had fallen from heaven, sent by Jupiter (διοπτεῖς).
Among the Christian a.cheropitae of the early Middle Ages the most famous are two images of Christ: that of Edessa and that of Kamoulia in Cappadocia. Today they no longer exist, but the effigy of the suffering Christ, which they reproduced with beard and long hair, can be reconstructed from the many copies transmitted to us by the early Middle Ages and now preserved: the oldest in Laon, Rome, Genoa, and the more recent ones in Russia.
The history of the a.cheropita of Edessa is obscure. The earliest document that speaks of it is the letter, often reproduced, with which Christ is said to have accompanied his own portrait sent to King Abgar Ukkāmā. Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia eccl., I, 13) asserts that the letter derives from an ancient Syriac text in the archives of Edessa, containing Christ’s promise to visit the king to heal him.
In a later text the icon is spoken of for the first time as the work of the painter Ananias; then about the year 600 comes the report that in 544, thanks to the help of the icon itself, the attack of the Persians against Edessa was repelled. A richly detailed legend, falsely attributed to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, appears in 944: in it the a.cheropita of Edessa is described, following what Evagrius had already said, as the imprint left by Christ’s face on a cloth; it would then have remained walled up, from the time of Abgar until 544, above the city gate. The legend alludes to two other miraculous imprints, impressed on tiles, one of which was kept at Hierapolis and the other at Edessa; in the dispute between Nestorians and Monophysites mention is made of two other copies that were to be found in the churches of Edessa.
It seems that in 944 the icon of Edessa was brought to Constantinople, probably together with the aforementioned letter of Christ to King Abgar and with the tile copy called the Keramidion, which was placed in the chapel of the imperial palace. In 1247 these relics were translated to the West, and it is possible that the a.cheropita that disappeared from the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris during the Revolution of 1792 had a direct connection with them.
Other icons were also identified with the mandylion of Constantinople: among these the panel preserved in Rome at S. Silvestro in Capite and brought by Pius X to the Vatican, and that of S. Bartolomeo degli Armeni in Genoa. But both are Oriental works, which, as their inscriptions in Slavonic testify, are later than the panel of Laon, painted not before the 12th century and perhaps sent from Rome to Montreuil-les-Dames in 1249. All of them repeat the type of the Edessa icon.
Between 560 and 574 occurs the first mention of the a.cheropita of Kamoulia. It is painted on linen and represents Christ as “Pantokrator.” It is said to have been found by a pagan woman in a fountain, and by its own power to have reproduced itself on her garment, which was then sent to Caesarea. A second copy is at Diobulon.
The Kamoulian icon was translated in 574 to Constantinople, where it is said to have reproduced itself miraculously on a cloth, later given to a convent at Melitene. The original kept at Constantinople, regarded as the city’s palladium, disappeared about the year 800. Anthony of Piacenza says he saw the icon at Memphis in Egypt on a “pallium lineum.”
Even the Pantokrator of the Sancta Sanctorum in Rome was believed in the Middle Ages to be an a.cheropita. The panel, which is much damaged and depicts Christ in majesty, seems to have been painted in Rome between the 5th and 6th centuries. Already in the early Middle Ages the head was replaced by another painted on cloth, an imitation of the Veronica of S. Peter.
This icon was already greatly venerated in the 8th century. In 752 it was carried in procession by Stephen II; and from then on the custom began of the Pope’s carrying it in solemn procession on 15 August to visit S. Maria Maggiore. As this procession practice spread throughout Latium, almost all the cities of the region, such as Velletri, Tivoli, Tarquinia, Sutri, procured a copy of this a.cheropita.
Of the Veronica of S. Peter in Rome there is certain notice already in the 9th century; first kept in the chapel of John VII, today it is in the pier of the Vatican Basilica, known precisely as the “Veronica.” Faithful to the most ancient reproductions, this icon too shows the bearded face of Christ, with long hair and a sorrowful aspect. The original certainly came from the East and perhaps stylistically recalled the icon of Edessa.
The tradition of the Holy Veronica, whose name some scholars believe to be a derivation from vera icon, is influenced by that of King Abgar. About 1300 Roger of Argenteuil relates that St. Veronica took the effigy of Christ, wiping his face during the journey to Calvary: hence the sudarium was simply called Veronica. During the Middle Ages it was reproduced so frequently as to give rise to a kind of craft among painters (the pictores Veronicae); it was carried throughout the world by pilgrims who gained indulgences from II.
The history of the Holy Shroud (v.) recalls that of the sudarium of Rome, but refers to the imprint left by the entire body of Jesus. Already in the 7th century we find traces of the cult paid to the Holy Shroud, and in the early Middle Ages mention is made of various specimens of the relic existing at Constantinople, at Compiègne, at Caen. Today by Holy Shroud is meant that preserved in the cathedral of Turin. It shows the Lord’s body from the facial and the dorsal side. The imprint is 1.78 m long; the cloth has an overall width of 4.36 m × 1.10 m.
The relic was kept from 1353 to 1478 at Lirey in Champagne and then, until 1578, at Chambéry, whence it came to Turin with the Dukes of Savoy. Current studies on the Holy Shroud tend to identify it with that which disappeared from Constantinople.
Some a.cheropitae of the Madonna were venerated as early as the 7th century. In the 8th century an icon is recorded at Diospolis in Palestine; concerning its origin there are two versions: one asserts that the image was produced by contact of the Virgin with a column, the other presents it as determined miraculously solely by the will of the Madonna herself. Other a.cheropitae of the Madonna are preserved at Constantinople, in Rome (S. Maria in Trastevere), and in various churches of southern Italy.
Among the a.cheropitae of saints one of the most venerated is that of St. George, preserved in his church near Diospolis-Lydda in Palestine; it is said to have been produced on the column at the contact of the saint when he was bound to it for scourging. — See Pl. XVI.