When Abgar V, the 1st century “king of the Arabs,” was incurably ill, he wrote Jesus a letter. The king had heard of all these miracles and hoped for one of his own. In return, Abgar offered Jesus protection from the Jews in his “very small and venerable city,” Edessa.
There are many stories of Jesus’s reply — including, by the 6th century, the story of a letter that respectfully said He was too busy yet came with a portrait miraculously imprinted on a washcloth after Jesus cleaned his face — and there are, naturally, many who doubt a reply was postmarked at all.
Over the centuries, everyone agreed on this much: Jesus didn’t visit the king in his lifetime. Instead, following His crucifixion, a visit was made on his behalf by a disciple named Thaddeus, or Addai. The king recognized Addai was an agent of Jesus, and he was cured. (In the Eastern Orthodox Church, both men are now saints.)
This story features prominently in the 4th century Doctrine of Addai, which also includes this great line about the broader conversion of Edessa: “And those who were accustomed to worship stones and stocks, sat at [Addai’s] feet, learning, and being corrected of the plague of the foolishness of paganism.” Stones and stocks!