But two and a half centuries pass. Constantinople was taken in the Fourth Crusade by the Crusaders. The altar in the church of St. Sophia, overlaid with gold and precious stones, was broken into pieces and taken away; the temples were similarly plundered. It can be thought that it was at this time that the miraculous face of Christ was taken away by the crusaders from Constantinople. Only some legends say that while traveling on the Sea of Marmara, he died in a shipwreck; on the contrary, according to Roman tradition, it was safely brought to Italy and is now kept in the church of St. Sylvester in Rome. The marble inscription in this church seems to confirm this legend. It reads: "The sacred image of Jesus Christ, miraculously impressed before the hour of suffering and sent to Emperor Augarus, was brought to Rome by Greek refugees and is venerated in this church of St. Sylvester with universal reverence."

The only thing that can surprise us is that in the Catholic world this image is nowhere repeated. But in almost every church there is an image of the face of Christ not made by hands - the so-called veil of Veronica.

The origin of this face is as follows.

When Christ the Saviour was led to be crucified, mocked, wounded, and bloodied, then a certain woman, a native of Gaul, who was in the crowd, in a fit of pity for the Sufferer, who was exhausted under the weight of the cross, rushed to Him and wiped His face with a damp towel. And lo and behold! Instead of bloody footprints, it depicted the suffering face of Christ, with a crown of thorns on his head. This is Veronica's veil.

Roman tradition says that the emperor Tiberius, having received from Pontius Pilate an account of all the events of Christ's life and His crucifixion, sent a confidant to Palestine for more accurate information and, perhaps, with the secret hope of receiving healing from his illness.

Veronica, keeping the holy image as an invaluable treasure, from which flowed numerous healings, arrived in Rome and appeared before Tiberius. At one glance at the face of Christ, the emperor received healing. It is very likely that this miracle prompted him to submit to the Senate a proposal to consider Jesus Christ among the Roman gods. The senate rejected this wish, and then Tiberius, as a sign of his gratitude to Christ, placed a statue of Him among his household gods.

The following data are kept in the Roman Church about the holy veil of Veronica. In 608, Pope Boniface IV placed it, together with other holy relics, in the Pantheon, once a pagan pagan temple, and now the temple of the true God. In 705, Pope John VII ordered the construction of a new reliquary to store the image not made by hands. When in 845 the holy cloth was transferred to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, only a casket remained in the Pantheon, the inscription on which read: "In this casket was transferred from Jerusalem to Tiberius Augustus the veil of the passion of G. n. Jesus Christ."

In the present St. Peter's Basilica, inside one pylon supporting the dome, there is a chapel dedicated to St. Helena; Veronica's veil is kept here. On some solemn days, the holy veil is worn out for veneration by the faithful. When a hundred years ago - Jan. 6. 1849 - The Image Not-Made-by-Hands was shown to the people, everyone was amazed at the clarity of the image and noticed that its copies, which can be seen in almost every Catholic church, quite accurately reproduce the original.

So, as on the ubrus of kn. On the cloth of Veronica, the face of Christ was miraculously depicted: on the first - before the passions, on the second - during the passions; that is why on Veronica's cloth the head of the Savior is framed with a crown of thorns, and on his forehead there are drops of blood.

Here it is appropriate to emphasize the miraculous imprint of Christ's face on both cloths. On the board of the book. The face of Christ was imprinted after Christ, having washed, wiped Himself with it. But if we think that the wet face of Christ could leave its natural imprint on the cloths, then this impression could only be shapelessly flat and excessively wide: the convex face of a person on the cloth is different and cannot be imprinted when all parts of the face touch it. If we see the face of the Saviour reflected on the cloth in the same way as any convex object is imprinted on a photographic plate, then this is a sign that the image did not occur in a natural order, but miraculously. Mirabiliter impressa.

These considerations about the supernatural imprint of the face of Christ on the cloths of Abgarus and Veronica will have to be borne in mind at the moment when we speak of the third image of the Savior not made by hands, imprinted on the so-called Shroud of Turin. And now let us make a small digression and point out that in the Russian Law. The Church, although there is no other service to the face of Christ not made by hands, except for August 16, but the face of Veronica's veil can be windy everywhere. For example, in the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius there was the famous Saviour Not-Made-by-Hands by Simeon Ushakov; this is the image of Abgarus. But in the same cathedral, behind the altar, there is the Savior of the brushes of Ushakov's disciples; this is the image of Veronica. The Savior in the house of Peter the Great is also Veronica's.

The third miraculous face of the Savior, which can now be found more and more often in the Catholic. temples, this is the face from the Shroud of Turin. It is not possible to tell her story in detail here. Those who wish should read the special literature on this issue. But we can express our point of view on the origin of this imprint of the entire body of Christ on the shroud. Did it originate naturally from the vapors of a dead body on a linen covered with a mixture of myrrh and scarlet (John 19:39), or, as on the cloths of Abgarus and Veronica, was the image miraculously imprinted?

If we assume the former, then it will be necessary to say that the body of Christ was laid in the tomb naked, and the shroud lay with one end under it, and the other over it; and that the sir (a separate head cloth) did not lie either on his face or on his head. Only under these conditions could the body of Christ be naturally imprinted on the shroud. But Bvangeliye does not allow us to think so. St. Mark says, "Joseph bought the shroud, and took it off, and wrapped it in the shroud, and laid it in the tomb" (15:46).

And in the Gospel of John: "So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in swaddling clothes with spices, as the Jews usually bury" (19:40). Let us pay attention to this most valuable addition of the Evangelist: "as the Jews usually bury"! It gives us the right to say that at the burial of Christ, all the main things that had to be done with the Dead, according to the Jewish custom, were done: the incense was laid, and the body was wrapped in the shroud, and the Emperor was on His head, as it is mentioned in John in the story of the resurrection of Christ: "Simon Peter came after him, and entered into the tomb, and saw only the swaddling clothes lying there, and the cloths, who was on His head, not lying with swaddling clothes, but specially twisted in another place" (20:6-7).