Acheiropoieta

Acheiropoieta are Christian icons that are said to have come into existence miraculously, not created by a human. They are also called icons made without hands. Invariably, these are images of Jesus or Mary, usually the Virgin and Child. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the most notable examples are the Mandylion, also known as the Image of Edessa, and the Hodegetria.

In Western Christianity, the most notable examples are the Shroud of Turin, Veil of Veronica, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the Manoppello Image. The term is often applied to the image's content, and thus used for what are known to be normal human copies of originals believed to have been miraculously created.

Although the most famous acheiropoieta today are mostly icons painted on wood panel, they exist in other media, such as mosaics, painted tile, and cloth. Ernst Kitzinger distinguished two types: "Either they are images believed to have been made by hands other than those of ordinary mortals or else they are claimed to be mechanical, though miraculous, impressions of the original". The belief in such images became prominent only in the 6th century, by the end of which both the Mandylion and the Image of Camuliana were well known. The anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza was shown a relic of the Veil of Veronica type in Memphis, Egypt, in the 570s.