VIRGIN MARY (LIFE GIVING SPRING)

Description According to Christian tradition, the sacred holy water named Life-giving Spring of Baloukli or Mary the Baloukliotissa was discovered in two different versions. By Emperor Leo the Great, who while being a simple soldier, met a blind man at the Golden Gate of Constantinople asking for water and while he was searching for water he heard a voice that indicated the point of the source. The blind man rubbed the muddy water in his eyes and was healed. Years later as an Emperor, Leo heard the same voice asking him to build a church next to the spring, and so he did. He dedicated it to Mary and named it “Life-giving Spring”. In the second version, the church was built in the early 6th century by Justinian in his hunting area, a place with lots of trees and springs. There, like a vision, he saw a small chapel, a priest and crowds of people in front of a spring and built a monastery, with materials left over from Hagia Sofia. In the 14th century, Nikephoros Kallistos cites a list of 64 miracles attributed to the spring. The tombs of the Ecumenical Patriarchs are located there, and the spring has become renowned throughout the Orthodox world as the holy water is considered to be sanctified.

Silkscreen icon, crafted on canvas with gold background.