Seriograph icon crafted in canvas with colored background on aged natural wood.

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Virgin Mary Zoodochos Pigi

According to Christian tradition, the sacred holy water named Zoodochos Pigi of Baloukli or Virgin Mary Baloukliotissa was discovered through two different versions. The first, by Emperor Leon the Great, who when he was still a simple soldier, he met with a blind man at the Golden Gate of Constantinople who asked him for water; searching he heard a voice that indicated him the spot of the water spring. The blind man rubbed his eyes with the muddy water and was healed. Years later as an Emperor, Leon heard the same voice asking him to build a Church next to the spring, and so he did. He dedicated it to the Virgin Mary and named it "Zoodochos Pigi (Lifegiving Spring)".

In the second version, in the early 6th century Justinian built the church close to the place he was hunting, an area with lots of trees and springs. There, in a vision, he saw a small chapel, a priest and lots of people in front of a spring so he built a monastery there, using the left over materials from Agia Sofia. In the 14th century, Nikiphoros Kallistos cites a list of 64 miracles attributed to the spring. The tombs of the Ecumenical Patriarchs are located there, the water is considered to be sanctified till today and the miracle of the Spring was spread throughout the Orthodox world.

Virgin Mary Zoodochos Pigi - Aged wooden icon in canvas with gold background - Mount Athos