The Christ Pantocrator Icon at St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai
In 544 AD, a cloth bearing an image of Jesus was
discovered hidden above a gate in Edessa's city walls. Six years later,
an icon was produced at St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. See
Early History of the Shroud of Turin.
There are startling similarities between the icon and
the image we see on the Shroud of Turin. There are, perhaps, too many
similarities for it to be a mere
coincidence.
The general placement of facial features
including eyes, nose and mouth. In fact, when a transparency of the
Shroud face is superimposed over the icon, there are no significant
variations.
The hair on the left side (your right) falls on
the shoulder and swoops outward. The hair on the other side is
shorter.
The eyes are very large.
The nose is particularly thin and long. The
face is gaunt.
There is a gap in the beard below a
concentration of facial hair that is just below the lower lip.
The neck is particularly long.
It is particularly interesting to note that starting
about this time a dramatic change took place in the way Jesus was
portrayed on coins, icons, frescos and mosaics. Before this time, Jesus
was usually portrayed in storybook settings such as a young shepherd or
modeled after the Greek Apollo.
After the discovery of the Edessa Cloth, images of
Jesus were suddenly full-frontal facial images.
