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Sinai Pantocrator Icon from St. Catherine's Monastery ca 550 CE
The Sinai Dessert Pantocrator Icon at St. Catherine's Monastery
More commonly known as the Christ Pantocrator Icon of St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai, it was was produced about 550 CE. It bears striking resemblances to the face on the Shroud of Turin. If, indeed, the Image of Edessa, discovered about 544 CE, was the model for this icon, then this is further evidence that the Image of Edessa and the Shroud are one and the same cloth. The general placement of facial features including eyes, nose and mouth can be seen when a transparency of the Shroud face is superimposed over the icon. On both, the hair on the left side falls on the shoulder and swoops outward. The hair on the other side is shorter. The eyes are large and owlish. The nose is especially thin and long. There is a gap in the beard below a concentration of facial hair that is just below the lower lip. And 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.
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