Christ Mandylion According to Christian legend, the Image of Edessa was a holy relic consisting of a square or rectangle of cloth upon which a miraculous image of the face of Jesus was imprinted — the first icon (“image”). In Eastern Orthodoxy, the image is known as the Holy Mandylion, a Byzantine Greek word not applied in any other context. The Keramidion is the name of a “holy tile” imprinted with the face of Christ miraculously transferred by contact with the Mandylion.