ABGAR, a king of Edessa, and of the district Osrhoene, the seventeenth of the twenty kings who bore this name, and contemporary with Christ. The name does not occur in Scripture, but is celebrated in ecclesiastical history, on account of the correspondence which is said to have passed between him and Christ. The legend is, that Abgar wrote to the Savior, requesting him to come and heal him of the leprosy; to which Christ replied, that he could not come to him, but would send one of his disciples. Accordingly he is said to have sent Thaddeus. Both letters are apocryphal, and may be found in Fabric. Codex Apoc. N. T. p. 317. See also the quarto ed. of Calmet.