The Monastery of Mary of the Spring

The Monastery of the mother of God at the Spring (full name in Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Θεοτόκου τῆς Πηγῆς, pr. Moni tis Theotóku tis  Pigis; Turkish name: Balıklı Meryem Ana Rum Manastiri) or simply Zoödochos Pege (Greek: Ζωοδόχος Πηγή, «Life-giving Spring») is an Eastern  Orthodox sanctuary in Istanbul, Turkey. The present church, built in 1835, bears the same dedication as the shrine erected in this place between  the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century. After several renovations, this building was destroyed in the first half of the fifteenth  century by the Ottomans. The complex got its name from a nearby holy spring, reputed to have healing properties. For almost fifteen hundred  years, this sanctuary has been one of the most important pilgrimage sites of Greek Orthodoxy.

According to historians Procopius and Cedrenus, the church was originally erected by Emperor Justinian in the last years of his reign (559-560)  near a fountain of water from a holy well (Greek: ἁγίασμα, hagiasma, whence Turkish: ayazma) situated outside the walls of Theodosius II in  correspondence of today’s Gate of Silivri. During hunting the Emperor noticed a small chapel surrounded by many women. Asking the meaning  of the building, he was told that this was the “source of the miracles”. He at once ordered that a magnificent church be built there, with the  material remaining after the erection of the Hagia Sophia.

According to a later legend, the sanctuary was erected by Emperor Leon I the Thracian (r. 457–474) because of a miracle that occurred when he  was still a soldier. Before entering the city, Leon met a blind man who asked him to give him water. A female voice ordered the future Emperor  to wet the eyes of the blind man with water from a nearby swamp. The same voice added that she had chosen that very place to be worshiped  and that he would one day receive the crown to the empire. Leon followed her order and at once the blind man recovered his eyesight. After his  accession to the throne, the emperor erected a magnificent church on this place. This legend is possibly a later invention of the monks of the  sanctuary. It is possible that, before the Justinian’s building was erected, a small monastery had already existed there.

The building underwent many repairs over the centuries. The largest were required because of earthquakes: in 790, under Empress Irene, and –  after the great earthquake of 869 – under Basil I. On 7 September 924 Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria burned the complex, which was at  once restored by Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944). Three years later the son of Simeon, Peter was married to Maria, the niece of Lekapenos.

Due to its position outside the city, the monastery was often used as place of exile. In 1078 Georgios Monomachos was banished there. In 1084,  Emperor Alexios I Komnenos confined the philosopher John Italus to the monastery, because of his Neoplatonic theories. After the Latin invasion  of 1204, the church was occupied by the Latin clergy and, according to Byzantine sources, this caused the end of the so-called «habitual miracle»  (to synetés thauma). In 1328 Andronikos III Palaiologos used the monastery as base to attack Constantinople. Two years later, as he lay dying in  the town of Didymoteicho, he drank water from the spring and recovered at once.

During the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1422 Sultan Murad II camped in the sanctuary. It is unknown whether the Byzantines restored  the building before the conquest of the city in 1453, Russian pilgrims of the fifteenth century do not mention the church, only the spring. The  16th-century French scholar Pierre Gilles writes that in 1547 the church did not exist anymore, but the sick continued to attend the spring.

In 1727 Nikodemos, Metropolitan of Dercos and Neochorion, built a small chapel above the Hagiasma. An icon, discovered in the foundations of  the old church, was venerated in the chapel. The Armenians tried to take possession of the spring, but several firmans secured the possession to  the Greeks. The complex was controlled by Turkish guardians, who collected from the pilgrims a tax that used for the maintenance of the prisons.  Later the complex came into the possession of the Patriarchate, until in 1821 the Janissaries destroyed the chapel and poisoned the spring. In  1833, a firman allowed Patriarch Constantius I to rebuild the church, which was inaugurated in 1835.

During the Istanbul Pogrom on 6 September 1955 it was targeted by the state-sponsored fanatic Muslim mob. During this attack  the sarcophaguses of the Ecumenical Patriarchs which are located outside the church were opened and their remains were scattered. Moreover,  the church and the monastery were completely burned to the ground. Since then the damage has been restored.

The sanctuary is directed by a titular bishop and is one of the most popular among the Orthodox of Istanbul, who visit it especially during  the Friday after Easter and on September 14. On these two days, a great feast, both profane and religious takes place there. Funerals of people  to be buried in the nearby cemetery are also celebrated in the church.

In Byzantine times the sanctuary was one of the most important in Constantinople. On Ascension Day, the Emperor arrived by boat to the small  harbor of the Golden Gate. He rode up to the sanctuary, where he was acclaimed by the factions, who offered him a cross and garlands. Later,  he dressed in his ceremonial robes in his apartments and, after receiving the Patriarch, the two entered the church hand-in-hand. After the  celebration, he invited the Patriarch for dinner.

Each future Empress coming to Constantinople for her wedding was received by her future spouse in the Monastery of the Spring.

The dedication feast of the church took place on July 9. Moreover, the Ascension, the Marriage at Cana (8 January) and the anniversary of the  Miracle of Leon I on 16 August were celebrated here. The Life-giving spring gave origin to many churches and monasteries bearing the same name  in the Greek world, but most of them were erected after the end of the Byzantine Empire.

The icon that represents the Virgin of the Spring shows the Virgin blessing and embracing the Child. She is surrounded by two angels and usually  is sitting on the more elevated of two basins which are sustained by a water jet coming from a larger marble basin adorned with a cross. Around  this, stands the Emperor with his guard, while on the left there is the Patriarch with his bishops. On the background, is represented Leon I with  the blind man together with the walls of the city. Under the basin a paralytic and a mad are healed with the spring’s water.

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