But the legend itself seems to be an importation, not a fabrication, as Mabillon suggested. For Constantine Porphyrogeneta (d. 959), in whose reign the sacred Abgarus portrait of Christ was brought to Constantinople, relates the following story of _that_ portrait:--"As Christ was on His way to Calvary, bearing His cross, the blood and sweat streaming from His brow obscured His eyes. Then taking from one of His disciples a piece of linen, He wiped His face, and left thereon His sacred portrait. S. Thomas preserved the towel till after the Ascension, when he gave the miraculous picture to Thaddæus, who bore it to Edessa. There he lodged with a Jew named Tobias. He began to work miracles in the name of Christ. Abgarus, king of Edessa, hearing of his works, sent for him. As Thaddæus entered the chamber of the sick king, he elevated above his head the sacred picture, and at the same time, such a blaze of light shot from his face, that Abgarus could not endure the splendour, and, forgetful of his sickness, leaped out of bed. Then he took the linen, covered his head and limbs with it, and was forthwith made whole."
How it was that this venerable picture passed into the hands of the Emperor of Constantinople we learn from the Arabic historian, El Matzin.[14] He says that in the year 331 of Hegira, that is A.D. 953--which is a mistake for 944--the Greeks besieged the city of Edessa, then in the hands of the Saracens, and demanded the surrender of the holy picture and the accompanying letters of Abgarus and the Saviour, in exchange for the captives they had made. The treasured relics were handed over to the Christians, and were brought to Byzantium, where they were placed in a befitting shrine in the church of the Eternal Wisdom. What became of the picture when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Mussulmans is uncertain. The Venetians claimed to have brought it to Rome, and to have presented it to the Church of S. Sylvester. The Genoese, on the other hand, lay claim to the possession of the sacred portrait, and say that it was brought by Leonard de Montalto, in 1384, to their city, and by him presented to the Armenian Church of S. Bartholomew, where it is still preserved and exhibited once a year.