Mid-lent/ Commemorating King Abgar of Edessa

The liturgical calendar of the Indian Orthodox Church not only steps into a very solemn milestone in the Lenten journey, i.e. the mid-lent, it also commemorates a king who was praised by our Lord for believing in Him without having seen Him. The Church historian Eusebius records this tradition in his work- ‘Church History’.

King Abgar or Abgarus ruled Edessa with great glory but he was afflicted with a terrible disease and no cure seemed in sight. He heard of Lord Jesus Christ and how people in one voice attested to the miracles and signs Christ did for the needy. King Abgar felt that only Christ could heal him of the infirmity, hence he sent his messenger to Christ with a plea to heal him of his disease. However, Christ didn’t comply with the king’s request immediately but promised through a personal letter that after His Ascension, one of His disciples would come to the king and cure him of the illness. Under divine inspiration, after Christ’s Ascension, one of the seventy evangelists- St Thaddeus was sent to Edessa to King Abgar. King Abgar’s illness was healed and through the preaching of St Thaddeus, the king and his subjects accepted the Christian faith.

Some legends also state that while responding to the king’s messenger, Jesus Christ used a face-cloth which miraculously bore the image of His face. The face-cloth was sent to King Abgar together with the letter and ofcourse with a promise that one of Christ’s disciples would be sent soon to him.

Below is the correspondence between King Abgar and Lord Jesus Christ as recorded by the Church historian Eusebius:
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Copy of an epistle written by Abgarus the ruler to Jesus, and sent to him at Jerusalem by Ananias the swift courier:

“Abgarus, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the excellent Saviour who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard the reports of you and of your cures as performed by you without medicines or herbs. For it is said that you make the blind to see and the lame to walk, that you cleanse lepers and cast out impure spirits and demons, and that you heal those afflicted with lingering disease, and raise the dead.

And having heard all these things concerning you, I have concluded that one of two things must be true: either you are God, and having come down from heaven you do these things, or else you, who does these things, are the Son of God. I have therefore written to you to ask you if you would take the trouble to come to me and heal the disease which I have. For I have heard that the Jews are murmuring against you and are plotting to injure you. But I have a very small yet noble city which is great enough for us both.”

The answer of Jesus to the ruler Abgarus by the courier Ananias:

"Blessed are you who hast believed in me without having seen me. For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe in me, and that they who have not seen me will believe and be saved. But in regard to what you have written me, that I should come to you, it is necessary for me to fulfill all things here for which I have been sent, and after I have fulfilled them thus to be taken up again to him that sent me. But after I have been taken up I will send to you one of my disciples, that he may heal your disease and give life to you and yours." (Ref: Eusebius, Church History-Book I, Chapter 13 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1, ed Philip Schaff)

Wishing a blessed season of fasting and repentance!

In Christ,

Rincy John