mandylion
Syllables: man·dy·li·on/mɑnˈdɪlɪən//mænˈdɪli.ən/
mandylion noun: often Mandylion: the Image of Edessa, a holy relic consisting of a piece of cloth upon which an image of the face of Jesus Christ had been miraculously imprinted without human intervention (that is, an acheiropoieton); an artistic depiction of this relic.
Noun
mandylion (countable and uncountable, plural mandylions)
- often Mandylion: the Image of Edessa, a holy relic consisting of a piece of cloth upon which an image of the face of Jesus Christ had been miraculously imprinted without human intervention (that is, an acheiropoieton); an artistic depiction of this relic.
- The tradition of the sacred image is related to established prototypes […] handed down in Christian art, the most important [of which] is the acheiropoietos ("not made by human hands") image of the Christ on the Mandilion. It is said that the Christ gave His image, imprinted on a piece of fabric...1967, Titus Burckhardt; Lord Northbourne (Walter Earnest Christopher James), transl., Sacred Art in East and West: Its Principles and Methods, London: Perennial Books, OCLC 896652107; republished...
- According to a sixth-century legend, King Abgar Ukamâ of Edessa fell ill. Hearing about a healer named Jesus, he sent for the holy man and promised to become his follower. Christ learned of this and praised Abgar for having faith without visual evidence. Unable to travel to Edessa, Christ sent a...1993, Joseph Leo Koerner, “Not Made by Human Hands”, in The Moment of Self-portraiture in German Renaissance Art, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 81
- Synonyms:
- Image of Edessa
Proper noun capitalized: Mandylion
Mandylion
- Alternative letter-case form of mandylion.
Examples of mandylion in a sentence
- Unable to travel to Edessa, Christ sent a likeness of himself produced miraculously on a cloth or mandylion (from Arabic mandil, "veil," and Latin mantele, "towel" or "napkin").1993, Joseph Leo Koerner, “Not Made by Human Hands”, in The Moment of Self-portraiture in German Renaissance Art, Chicago, Ill.: University...
- These legends not only established the value of the Mandylion and the Vera Icon as authentic portraits of Christ, but also as acheiropoieta, i.e., images made without the intervention of human hands.1995, Maurits Smeyers, “An Eyckian Vera Icon in a Bruges Book of Hours, ca. 1450 (New York, Pierpoint Morgan Library, Ms 421)”, in Werner...
- Barbara in Khé, a thirteenth-century Georgian church, the Mandylion is painted on the wall behind the altar, […]1999, Sharon E. J. Gerstel, Beholding the Sacred Mysteries: Programs of the Byzantine Sanctuary (Monographs on the Fine Arts; 56), Seattle...
- The mandylion became not just a holy relic but an image to be copied, either as textile or as iconographic type on a hard surface: a painted icon of a mandylion with Christ's face on it.2009, Artemis Leontis, Culture and Customs of Greece, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 42:
Synonyms of mandylion
- Image of Edessa
Forms of mandylion
| plural | mandylions |
|---|---|
| alternative form | mandilion |
| alternative form | Mandylion |
Origin of mandylion
From Byzantine Greek μανδύλιον (mandúlion), μανδίλιον (mandílion), μαντίλιον (mantílion), or μανδήλη (mandḗlē, “cloth, hand towel, handkerchief, tablecloth”) (the last word dating to the 5th century), especially in the term τὸ ἄγιον μανδήλιον (tò ágion mandḗlion, “the holy towel”); from Latin mantēlium, a variation of mantēle or mantēlum (“hand towel, napkin”) (probably misconstructed as a singular form from the plural mantēlia); probably from manus (“hand”) + tergō (“to rub, wipe, wipe off, clean, cleanse”). Probably cognate with Umbrian mantrahklu.
Words that rhyme with mandylion
- pavilion
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- Brazilian
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- centillion
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48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- duovigintillion
- million
- nonillion
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- quindecillion
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- gazillion
- gillian
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- Jillian
- jillion
- Kabylian
- Luxulyan
- mandilion
- Maximilian
- millillion
- millinillion
- novemtrigintillion
- novemvigintillion
- octogintillion
- octotrigintillion
- octovigintillion
- quadragintillion
- quattuortrigintillion
- quinquagintillion
- quinvigintillion
- septentrigintillion
- septenvigintillion
- sextrigintillion
- sexvigintillion
- squillion
- untrigintillion
- vigintillion
Questions about mandylion
- What does mandylion mean?
- Mandylion means often Mandylion: the Image of Edessa, a holy relic consisting of a piece of cloth upon which an image of the face of Jesus Christ had been miraculously imprinted without human intervention (that is, an acheiropoieton); an artistic depiction of this relic.
- How do you use mandylion in a sentence?
- Unable to travel to Edessa, Christ sent a likeness of himself produced miraculously on a cloth or mandylion (from Arabic mandil, "veil," and Latin mantele, "towel" or "napkin").
- What part of speech is mandylion?
- Mandylion can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce mandylion?
- Mandylion is pronounced /mɑnˈdɪlɪən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mandylion?
- The plural of mandylion is mandylions.
Words near mandylion in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mandylion (page history and authors); Mandylion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-mandylion.opus, en-us-mandylion.opus.
Cite this entry: “mandylion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mandylion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.