Zoodochos Pigi

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Mary the Life-Giving Spring in the Church of the Presentation of the Theotokos in Kičevo Monastery in North Macedonia , 14th century

Zoodochos Pigi , ( Greek Ζωοδόχος Πηγή , Latin Fons vitae ), the "life-giving source", is a certain type of image of Mary in Byzantine iconography .

Iconographic story

Interior of the Church of Our Lady of the Life Giving Spring in Istanbul

Many passages in the Old and New Testament deal with the life-giving and healing power of a spring . In this case, the name is associated with a small Marian shrine that was located in front of the walls of Constantinople , about 200 meters from the Silivri Gate - once called the Source Gate - and to this day as the Church of Our Lady of the Life-Giving Spring in the city district Balıklı ( Turkish : fish) exists in today's Istanbul . There are two traditions about the origin of the sanctuary.

In 450, the then soldier and later Byzantine emperor Leo I (457–474) is said to have met a blind man who had lost his way and asked for some water. Leo wanted to help him but found no water until a mysterious voice pointed him to a hidden spring. When the blind man had quenched his thirst and Leo washed his eyes, he miraculously regained his eyesight. When Leo became emperor, he had a church built in that place in honor of the Mother of God with the title "living" or "invigorating spring".

According to the church historian Nikephoros Kallistu Xanthopulos († around 1335) it was the Byzantine emperor Flavius ​​Marcianus (450–457) and his wife Aelia Pulcheria who had a first church built in that place in honor of the Virgin Mary .

The emperor Justinian I (527-565) had the church expanded into a basilica with a monastery around 560 . Since then, the sanctuary's fame grew from year to year until it became the place of pilgrimage for emperors. To this day there is said to be miracles and constant healings there. Nikephorus lists 60 miracles, 15 of which happened during his lifetime. The church was destroyed between the 7th and 10th centuries during the sieges of Constantinople that devastated the area around the capital and was later rebuilt.

The Holy Spring ( hagiasma ) of the Church of Our Lady of the Life Giving Spring in Istanbul with fish

Since Nikephoros lived in the 14th century, his description of the sanctuary reflects the condition at that time. The shape of the spring itself is important for the iconography: In the middle of the church, at the place of the spring, there was a cavity, a marble basin with a tub from which the spring rises. Above the spring, which was surrounded by four arches, rose a dome decorated with a mosaic , which depicted the Mother of God in an oranten pose and her son Jesus in her lap. When the flow of water was interrupted, the mosaic image was reflected in the marble tub. The sanctuary was a place of pilgrimage for people and court. On the occasion of the feast of the Ascension of Christ , the emperor and his dignitaries went in procession with the clergy.

In the 14th century the sanctuary had become one of the most important shrines in the whole of the East. The Russian pilgrims of the 14th and 15th centuries also said that they went to the "pighi" to worship the Virgin, to drink holy water and to wash.

Until the 15th century, the Feast of the Life Giving Spring was celebrated on January 8th and July 9th; after that it was postponed to the Friday after Easter. The liturgical texts written by Nikephoros were inspired by the devotion and enthusiasm of the faithful who gathered around the source. They praise the Mother of God as the source of life because she receives life from God, Christ, and gives it to souls.

The monk Dionysios of Phourna (around 1670 - after 1744) describes the life-giving spring of Balıklı in his manual of painting from Mount Athos in chapter 441 "How to paint the fountain":

“The dome and pendants are painted in frescoes . On the dome are two sections for painting, each of which contains twelve representations. If you go from west to east, from left to right, you will find the following. First the virgin with baby Jesus. It dominates a well, a basin, from which various springs spring and from which Christians of different sex, age and status draw continuously. The holy virgin is called Ζωοδόχος Πηγή, the life-bringing source. "

When the Muslim Ottomans conquered the Byzantine capital Constantinople on May 29, 1453 after a long siege , a miracle is said to have occurred here. According to legend, a monk at the monastery was frying seven fish. When a brother rushed in and brought the horror story that Mehmet II had penetrated the city, these were just fried on one side. They jumped out of the pan and swam in the spring of Balıklı. Since this tent the successors of these fish are supposed to swim in the spring.

When Constantinople was conquered, churches and monasteries were plundered. The churches that were not demolished were converted into mosques. Soon Sultan Mehmed II gave the order to destroy the sanctuary too, so that the material could be used to build a mosque. The few remaining Christians were given permission to build a small church at the source, which was destroyed again in 1821. The church was later rebuilt with the permission of Sultan Mahmud II (1808–1839). On December 30, 1834, the reconstruction of the pilgrimage church was completed and the Patriarch Constantius II presided over the inauguration ceremony in the presence of twelve archbishops and a large number of priests and lay people.

The sanctuary is still visited today by many believers and sick people, so that the district of Balıklı is also called "Lourdes of the Byzantines". The sick who come to the spring are immersed in a kind of swimming pool, then the miracle water is poured three times on the painful limbs. Then the patient is wrapped in a cloth soaked in the miracle water, which dries on the body while he drinks the healing water.

iconography

Icon of the Mother of God of the life-giving spring in the Chiesa Santa Maria Assunta in Villa Badessa , 1769

The icon type of the Mother of God from the life-giving source had its first forms of expression in the traditional iconographic types of the Brephocratousa (Greek: βρεφοκρατοῡσα) carried by the child, such as Hodegetria , Eleusa , Maria Orans , etc., until in the 14th century those for the The version created by the monastery appeared. Mary is depicted sitting, partly in an oranten pose, half or full length in a fountain bowl similar to a baptismal font , while the baby Jesus sits leaning against her breast in front of his mother with a gesture of blessing. The liturgical inscriptions always remember the Zoodochos Pigi, the life-giving spring.

Dionysius of Phourna describes in his handbook of painting from Mount Athos in chapter 397 "The life-bringing source" the representation as follows:

"... A fountain made entirely of gold, and the Brethren of God is in the middle with her hands outstretched upwards and Christ is before her, blesses to one side and the other, has the Gospel on his breast and says: 'I am the living water', and there are two angels holding a crown over their heads with one hand and a ribbon with the other; one says: 'Greetings you pure life-bringing source'; and the other: 'Greetings you pure life-bringing source'. Under the well is a container with water and mediocre fish. And from one side and the other of them are patriarchs and kings, queens, princes, princesses; they wash and drink water with vessels and cups. And many others who are sick and paralyzed in hands and feet do the same; a priest with the cross blesses them; and before them a man possessed is held. And the captain of the ship pours the water over the Thessalian who has been raised from the dead . ... "

literature

  • Gaetano Passarelli: Le icone e le radici. Le icone di Villa Badessa . Fabiani Industria Poligrafica, Sambuceto 2006, p. 54 f . (Italian).
  • Maria Vasilake: Images of the Mother of God: perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantyum . Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2005, ISBN 0-7546-3603-8 (English).
  • Nikodim Pavlovich Kondakov : Ikonografija Bogomateri . 2 vols. Sankt-Peterburg, Izd. Imp. Akad. Nauk 1914-1915, pp. 372-377.
  • Johann Georg, Duke of Saxony : Presentation of Mary as Zoodochos Pigi . In: Byzantine Journal . Volume 18, Issue 1, 1909, pp. 183-185. On-line

Web links

Commons : Life-Giving Font icons  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ingrid Baumgärtner, Stephan Conermann, Thomas Honegger: Water in Medieval Culture / Water in Medieval Culture . De Gruyter, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-044286-1 , p. 558 ( online version in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ a b c d Gaetano Passarelli, p. 54
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Sorgente di Vita / Zoodòchos Pegé. In: Reginamundi.info. Retrieved September 6, 2017 (Italian).
  4. ↑ a b Enrico Dal Covolo, Aristide Serra: Storia della mariologia . tape 1 . Città Nuova, Rome 2009, ISBN 978-88-311-9293-4 , p. 1000 (Italian, online version (preview) in Google Book Search).
  5. ↑ Handbook of Painting from Mount Athos from the handwritten modern Greek original, translated by Adolph Napoléon Didron . Lintz, Trier 1855, 441 How to paint the fountain, p. 408 ( archive.org ).
  6. ↑ Nicetas Mitropulos: Marienikonen . Buch-Kunstverlag, Ettal 1964, p. 68 .
  7. ↑ Representation of Mary as Zoodochos Pigi, p. 183