A special type of Christ’s iconography: his face is represented on a cloth. Tradition relates that its miraculous appearance is connected with King of Edessa Avgar who was a leper and wanted to have an image of Christ to cure his disease. The image of the Saviour not made by hand, brought to Avgar, was placed in a niche above the town gates of Edessa and subsequently immured with clay tiles and bricks. The image was recovered in 545 and in 944 it was transferred to Constantinople the feast of which is celebrated on 16 (29) August as a special feast of the Transfer of the Saviour not Made by Hand.
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