In Orthodox culture, there are many different miraculous icons of the Mother of God. Some faces of the Virgin have an ancient history. One of these icons includes images of the Virgin of the type "Life-giving Source".
Every year the Orthodox Church on Friday of the Bright Week celebrates in honor of the celebration of the Icon of the Mother of God "Life-giving Source". On this day, in the Orthodox churches, the rite of blessing water is performed. The history of the appearance of the icon of the Virgin "Life-giving Source" dates back to the time of the 5th century and is a reminder of the miracle of the healing of the Virgin by the blind man at a source located near Constantinople. The witness of this amazing event was the warrior Leo Markell, who later became emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
When Leo passed the source, he saw a blind man. The warrior went to the spring in order to get water and drink the blind. Suddenly, Markell heard a voice telling him to scoop up water from the source and not only give the blind man a drink, but also apply a wet dressing with water to the sick person. It was the voice of the Mother of God. Leo Markel fulfilled the command and the blind man received his sight.
When Leo took office as head of the great empire, he erected a temple near the source in honor of the Virgin Mary. The House of God was called the "Life-Giving Source." After the conquest of Byzantium by the Muslims, the temple was destroyed. The House of God was restored near the source only in the 19th century.
The very image of "Life-giving spring" is a later "prototype" of the ancient icon of the Virgin of the "Sign" type. On the ancient Vlaherna prototype, the Virgin was depicted at the source. Holy water flowed from the hands of the Virgin Mary. Initially, the icon "Life-giving Spring" did not portray a healing spring. Later, iconography included a bowl of holy water, as well as a source or fountain.
The earliest images of the Virgin "Life-giving Source" include the image found in the Crimea, which belongs to historians in the XIII century. From the middle of the XIV century, images of the Virgin "Life-giving Spring" appear with a cup and a healing spring located above it. In the 15th century, an image of the "Life-Giving Spring" type appeared on Mount Athos in the monastery of St. Paul. The Virgin and Child are depicted in a bowl.
In Russia, icons such as the "Life-Giving Spring" began to appear in the 16th century, when the practice came to practice of consecrating water sources at monasteries, dedicating them to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is also necessary to say about other names of the icon, which found their reflection in the Russian tradition. These include the names "Life-giving Source", "Source" and "Living Source".
