Sent us by Daniel Olson:-
SYNAXARIA OF THE
PENTECOSTARION
FRIDAY of BRIGHT WEEK
On Friday of Bright Week we celebrate the dedication of the church of our all-holy Lady the Theotokos, which is called the Life-bearing Spring. And we likewise keep the memory of the excellent supernatural miracles wrought in that church by the Mother of God.
Verse
In thy spring, O Virgin, every man clearly beholdeth
the Manna, the Pool of Siloam, and the Porch of Solomon.
Synaxarion
This church was originally founded by the Emperor Leo the Great, who was known as Marcellus. A good and compassionate man, one day, when he was still one of the simple inhabitants of the land, before he ascended the imperial throne, finding himself in that place, and there coming upon a blind man who was stumbling about, he took him by the arm. And lo! when they were drawing nigh to that place, the blind man, tormented by an unbearable thirst, asked Leo to refresh him with water.
And entering a wooded area of the forest, he began to search for a spring; but at that time that area was thickly grown over with divers trees and densely covered with flowering shrubs. And since he did not find any water there, he turned back in sadness. But suddenly, as he was returning he heard a voice from on high, which said: “Be of good cheer, O Leo, for water is nigh at hand!” Leo then turned back and began again to search; but when his labors once more met with failure, he again heard that voice, saying: “Emperor Leo, go back to that thicket, and with thy hand mingle that water with mire, and therewith quench the thirst of the blind man; and when thou wilt anoint his eyes with the mire thou wilt recognize who I am who have dwelt in this place for long years. He did as the voice instructed him, and the blind man immediately regained his sight.
And when, as the Mother of God had prophesied, Leo came to reign as emperor, he spared no expense in constructing over the spring a church, which standeth to this day.
There, miracles were poured forth in abundance. When some years had passed, Justinian, the greatest sovereign of the Romans, who suffered from bladder stones, had received healing there; whereupon, out of veneration for the Mother of the Word, he rebuilt the church, which had since fallen into ruins because of an earthquake. This church was subsequently rebuilt again by Basil the Macedonian and his son, Leo the Wise. During their reign, the spring performed a great many miracles, so that it healed kidney stones, consumption and a myriad of other diseases, and divers types of cancer and bloody fluxes, of which the empresses and other women suffered, and fevers of all sorts, and other sicknesses and incurable abscesses. It likewise cured infertility: thus, the Empress Zoë, who was barren, received a gift from this spring— a son, Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
It even restored a dead man to life. He was from Thessaly and was traveling to this spring when he died on the way. When he was on the verge of dying, he commanded the sailors to take him to the church of the spring and to pour out three vessels of water upon him before burying him there; but when the sailors poured the water upon him, the dead man straightway returned to life.
Many years later, when that great church was about to collapse, the Theotokos appeared and bolstered the structure until the whole multitude assembled therein managed to flee. This water, when drunk, hath driven out divers demons, and delivered from prison men incarcerated therein. It also healed the Emperor Leo from kidney stones, and quenched the most virulent fever of Theophania, his consort. And it likewise cured his brother, the Patriarch Stephen, of consumption. It also restored the hearing of Patriarch John of Jerusalem. It cured the intense fever of the Patrician Tarasius, his mother, Magistrissa, while it healed his son, Stylianus, of dropsy. A certain woman by the name of Schizina it healed of a sickness of the womb. And the same water cured the Emperor Romanus and his consort of chronic diarrhea and constipation. At her mere invocation, the most holy one cured the monk Peperinus and his
disciple, in Chaldæa. And similarly, the monks Matthew and Meletius, who had been denounced to the emperor, she delivered from his wrath.
And who can recount the patricians, high officials of the Empire, and countless others who received cures? Stephen also received healing of his thigh through the burning of incense there. And what tongue is able to recount the miracles this water hath wrought, and continueth to accomplish even today — miracles more abundant than rain-drops, the stars, the leaves of a tree — which we
have seen even in our day? Thus, it hath miraculously cured an unusual urge to eat, cancer, caries, deadly tuberculosis, carbuncles, leprosy, deafness; it hath cured female tumors, and quite often spiritual passions, flux of the eyes and cataracts. John the Viking it cured of dropsy; another Viking it healed of a malignant chronic lesion; and Hieromonk Mark of a smarting rash which was spreading over his skin (either smallpox or measles); the Monk Macarius of fifteen years of shortness of breath and of stone; and many others, whom it is quite impossible to enumerate — all this hath the Mother of God done, and continueth to do; and she never ceaseth.
Through the intercesssions of Thy Mother, O Christ God, have mercy upon us. Amen.