The Life-Giving Fount – Friday of Bright Week

Beyond Constantinople, towards the locale of the Seven Towers, there was in old times an exceptionally huge and most lovely church named to pay tribute to the Theotokos; it had been worked about the center of the fifth hundred years by the Ruler Leo the Incomparable (likewise called “Leo of Thrace,” he is recognized on Jan. 20). Before he became Ruler, he had experienced there a visually impaired man, who being tortured with thirst requested that he assist him with tracking down water. Leo felt empathy for himself and went looking for a wellspring of water however seen none. As he became dejected, he heard a voice letting him know there was water close by. Once more, he looked, and saw none. Then he heard the voice once more, this time referring to him as “Sovereign” and letting him know that he would find water in the thickly lush spot close by; he was to take some water and bless the visually impaired man’s eyes with it. At the point when he had done this, the visually impaired man accepted his sight. After Leo became Ruler, as the Most-Blessed Theotokos had forecasted he raised up a congregation over the spring, whose waters worked numerous healings and restored illnesses by the finesse of the Theotokos; from this, it came to be known as the “Nurturing Spring.” The Congregation of Christ praises the sanctification of this congregation on this day. After the fall of the majestic city, this congregation was annihilated to the ground and the materials from it were utilized for building the mosque of King Bayezid. There is essentially no trace of that congregation’s old magnificence, with the exception of a little and miserable house of prayer, totally covered in the remains. This sanctuary had 25 stages going down into it, and a transom window on the rooftop, wherefrom it got somewhat light. Close to the western side of the sanctuary was the previously mentioned sacred spring, fenced about with a railing, and with fish swimming in it. Such was the state of the spring until 1821. Then even that little remainder was annihilated, occasioned by the uprising of the Greek country against the Ottoman Domain; the sacrosanct spring was covered with it and vanished out and out.