The source of healing discovers us the role of the Virgin Mary in the history of salvation

The preaching of His Excellency Father Calinic at the fountain of the healing

« The holiday The source of healing The position and role of the Virgin in the history of salvation discovers us.

Her feast in this Illuminated week It strengthens the belief that wherever Christ the Resurrected Christ will be preached, the one from which He has taken body will be preached; the one who, born to the Son of God incarnate, made the beginning of his work of salvation.

The source of healing It is a holiday dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who has as scriptural argumentations the verses: « That is the source of life, in your light we will see light » (Psalms 35, 9); And « the one who will drink from the water that I will give (…) will be made in it the source of flowing water for eternal life » (John 4, 14).

The feast, which has only widespread in the eleventh century, leaves from a wonderful, real event, as Nichifor Calist Xantopol, who, together with Joseph the Hymnograph, made the hymns and prayers of this holiday.

It is said that during the emperor Marcian (450-457), in the 5th century, a soldier named Leon Markellis, walking through a forest and platforms planted in honor of the Virgin outside the Golden Gate of the walls of Constantinople, met a blind man who asked for little water. And while the young soldier was still wondering where to give water to the blind, a voice guided to go to the middle of the forest, where he would find a spring.

Arrived at the indicated place, the young man found the spring, from which he gave the blind water to drink; After the blind man drank, the same voice urged the soldier to sprinkle his eyes with water. And suddenly the blind man regained his vision. It had been the voice of the Virgin Mary.

The young man by which the Mother of the Lord performed the miracle is no other than the future emperor Leon the Great (457-474), to whose name the first church raised above that spring will be linked.

A century later, Emperor Justinian the Great (527-565)-as the historian Procopius records-was healed by an edema using the water of the same spring. And, as a thanks to the Virgin Mary for the acquired healing, Iustinian raised – near the church built by Leon – another monumental church, which was later transformed into a monastery.

According to the description of Nichifor Calist Xantopol, the church was rectangular, with a basement by which the spring could be reached, richly adorned with paintings and icons, with entrances on each side. Not far from the church were the graves of several ecumenical patriarchs (MignePg 147, 73-77).

After the fall of Constantinople (1453), the « Izvorul Tămăduirii » Church was destroyed, and the resulting materials were used to build Sultan Baiazid. From the historical sources it appears that from the whole ensemble there was only a paraclis that was destroyed by the ethers in 1821, and the spring was covered.

Only in 1833 Sultan Mehmed II gave Christians the freedom to rebuild a church above that source; The construction of the new place began on September 14, 1833 and ended on December 30, 1834. But this church was also destroyed in 1955, on September 6, by Muslims, being restored shortly.

But beyond this historicity of the Church, the theology of the holiday is hidden in the icon of the feast, which releases a lot of joy and comfort to the worshiper.

A huge cup of stone that feeds from a huge life-giving water basin offers healing to the sufferers and sick, but also to the thirsty, troubled and sad. In the cup is the Mother of the Lord with the baby in his arms, which bless in the sign of the Holy Cross. The virgin with the baby and the fountain indicates her divine and spiritual motherhood. Above, two angels hold a parchment that is written: « Happy, you (for) what you wear! Happy, you (for) what you are! » Near the fountain are the emperor and many sufferers who are sprinkled with holy water.

The images of the Virgin Mary without a baby in relation to the spring indicates self -emptying; Its role of fountain is the one of sealing towards the pursuit of passions in the garden of the delights of this world. In addition, they emphasize the virgin teaching of the Maria of the waters that will spring from it and, implicitly, its innocence.

The connection between The Friday of the Passions and The Friday of the Spring of Healing or of the source of life It shows that the mystery of the Church – as a place of healing, release of sins and suffering – is related to the Mother of the Lord, who is, secretly, the icon of the Church in which healing is acquired by the healing grace, given by the crucified and resurrected Christ.

The holiday The source of healing It shows that the healing grace of Christ the crucified and resurrected is poured into the Church, in the Holy Sacraments and Prayers, especially by the mercy and prayers of the Virgin: « Wonderful and amazing things performed the master of the heavens, from the beginning through you, the one, the one, The source from which all the kindness and the multitude of healing flows, sprinkling of plenty of all those who need to strengthen the souls and the health of the body through the water of grace, ”says a struggle from the Vecernia of the holiday.

The treasury of the goodies gave the happy one with a richness of his gifts, gifts that she shares us, as we do, as we read in the prayer from The aquatist of the Lord’s welcome: « You, O, Most Holy Mother, being the Church of God who brought to the Church of your Son, Christ our God, delight us and love more in this world the churches of your Son, to research them in all the days of our lives, there to see the beauty of the Lord Always welcoming, O Mother of God, your Son in our hearts and souls, to confess ourselves through your prayers to acquire that welcome of the Lord, and so we will glorify and sing with all the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. « 

On Friday from Week Bright The Church calls us to drink from the source of the flowing, saying, « Remove the sick, from the source of healing! That the Mosthal makes to run, from the divine source, the true sweetening, truly sprinkling the torrent of delight.Song 7th, irmos 1).

The source of healing shows us the power of the Virgin Mary to do wonders. And as Christ is called a source of life and living water, of non -sturgence and immortality, so does the service of this feast call the Mother of the Lord « the source of all the goodness and from which all the benefits, the heavenly hand and the divine source of the heaven, the source full of wonders. »

If we compare and think of the two springs-Christ and the Mother of God-and the water of grace poured through them, we observe that we are dealing with the same living, saving and healing water, which springs from a single source-God; The source of immortal water is Christ.

He is the first and greatest gift to mankind by the Mother of the Lord, « the source of the nonsense from which he sprouted Christ, the water from which we are wished » (The 3rd song, irmos 1).

Through her cleansing and sacrifice, the Blessed Virgin Mary made the incarnation of the Son of God as a full initiative of God. Due to the cleansing, obedient and humble availability, as well as the gift received and then given to the world, the Mother of God has become a source of gifts for the whole of humanity. It is the source of which, as one of the feasting songs says, « all the goodness and from all the benefits flow, as a lot of healing, to those who need the strengthening of souls and health through the water of grace » (sticheron The resurrection of the resurrection).

The Mother of the Lord is the healing of our souls. From it, as from a spring, the riches of the benefits are poured out of a fountain or as a source of the gifts: « Who will say your powers, sources, which full of non-disturbed miracles, do many things and above all, You have loved them with love, but also the passions of the souls, cleaning them, which you are completely without pride; (sticheron The resurrection of the resurrection).

For us, the Mother of the Lord is always a support, a hope that we target, enjoying her unheard of help. The treasurer of the goodies-the Holy Spirit-gave it with wealth from his gifts, which she shares, as one of the songs dedicated to her: « to all the believers, the rulers, the people, the poor, the leaders, the lack and the ones, the water,Song 3, irmos 4).