ICONOGRAPHY

The Entrance

South View Showing the Memorial Garden

Facing East - The Altar

Upon Entering the Chapel

Facing West

Main Entrance - Facing North

Looking up at the Dome

More Spacious than the Heavens

Bishops and Niches

Nativity of Christ

Extreme Humility

The Baptism of Christ

Over the East Apse

The Holy Napkin

When the fame of our Lord Jesus Christ came to Abgar, the ruler of Edessa, who was suffering from leprosy, Abgar sent a messenger named Ananias, through him asking the Savior to heal him of his disease, while bidding Ananias to bring back a depiction of Him. When Ananias came to Jerusalem, and was unable to capture the likeness of our Lord, He, the Knower of hearts, asked for water, and having washed His immaculate and divine face, wiped it dry with a certain cloth, which He gave to Ananias to take to Abgar; the form of the Lord's face had been wondrously printed upon the cloth. As soon as Abgar received the cloth, which is called the Holy Napkin (Mandylion), he reverenced it with joy, and was healed of his leprosy.

The Holy Tile

Abgar had the holy image of our Savior fixed to a board and placed at the city gate, so that all who entered the city reverenced it as they passed through. Abgar's grandson, however, returned to the worship of the idols, and the Bishop of Edessa learned of his intention to replace the Holy Napkin with an idol. Since the place where it stood above the city gate was a rounded hollow, he set a burning lamp before the Holy Napkin, put a tile facing it, then bricked up the place and smoothed it over, so that the holy icon made without hands was no longer to be seen, and the ungodly ruler gave no further thought to it.

With the passage of time, the hidden icon was forgotten, until the year 615, when Chosroes II, King of Persia, was assaulting the cities of Asia, and besieged Edessa. The Bishop of Edessa, Eulabius, instructed by a divine revelation, opened the sealed chamber above the city gate and found the Holy Napkin complete and incorrupt, the lamp burning, and the tile bearing upon itself an identical copy of the image that was on the Holy Napkin. The Persians had built a huge fire outside the city wall; when the Bishop approached with the Holy Napkin, a violent wind fell upon the fire, turning it back upon the Persians, who fled in defeat.

Over the West Apse

Overview

Pantocrator

Overview of the Heavenly Hosts

Angel of the Lord

Angel of the Lord

St. Matthew

St. Mark

St. Luke

St. John the Theologian

St. Efstathios

Family Icon with Christ

The Mother of God

St. Thomas

Christ Enthroned

St. John the Forerunner

St. John’s Greek Orthodox Church, Craig CO.

Click to Read: Craig Daily Press Article

St.John’s Greek Orthodox Church, Craig CO.

December 2021

January 2025