Church of St. Mary of the Spring (Istanbul)

The Monastery of the Mother of God at the Spring (full name in

The church is located in Istanbul, in the district of Zeytinburnu, in the neighbourhood of Balıklı, along Balıklı Sivrikapı Sokak. It lies a few hundred meters outside the walled city, about five hundred meters from the Gate of Silivri (Turkish: Silivri Kapısı). The complex is protected by a high wall, and – being surrounded by Eastern Orthodox and Armenian cemeteries – lies in a green landscape.

History

Byzantine Age

According to historians

After the Latin invasion of 1204, the church was occupied by the Latin clergy and, according to Byzantine sources, this caused the end of the so-called "habitual miracle" (to synetés thauma).^[5]

In 1328 Andronikos III Palaiologos used the monastery as base to attack Constantinople.^[5] Two years later, as he lay dying in the town of Didymoteicho, he drank water from the spring and recovered at once.^[5]

During the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1422, Sultan Murad II camped in the sanctuary. It is unknown whether the Byzantines restored the building before the conquest of the city in 1453 ^[6] Russian pilgrims of the fifteenth century do not mention the church, only the spring.

Ottoman and Turkish Ages

The 16th-century French scholar

In 1727 Nikodemos,

The sanctuary is directed by a titular bishop and is one of the most popular among the Orthodox of Istanbul, who visit it especially during the Friday after Easter^[4] and on September 14. On these two days, a great feast, both profane and religious takes place there.^[6] Funerals of people to be buried in the nearby cemetery are also celebrated in the church.

In Byzantine times the sanctuary was one of the most important in

Each future Empress coming to Constantinople for her wedding was received by her future spouse in the Monastery of the Spring.[6]

The dedication feast of the church took place on July 9. Moreover, the Ascension, the

The Life-giving spring gave origin to many churches and monasteries bearing the same name in the Greek world, but most of them were erected after the end of the Byzantine Empire.[9]

The

According to Nikephoros Kallistos (writing in fourteenth century) the church by that time had a rectangular shape of basilica type, with a 4:3 proportion between the sides, and was partly subterranean.^[10] It was surrounded by two exonarthexes (on the E and W side) and two esonarthexes (on the S and N sides). The light coming from outside was concentrated on the source, which could be reached descending two stairs having 25 steps. Each stair was delimited by a marble balustrade and surmounted by a marble arcade. The water fell into a marble basin, and a canalization distributed it in the church.^[10] The edifice was adorned with frescos and surmounted by a dome glittering with pure gold. Around the church there were three chapels, devoted respectively to Saint Eustratius, the Theotokos and Saint Anne.

The present church is also rectangular in shape. It is roughly oriented in E - W direction, and has three naves divided by columns and preceded by an esonarthex. By the Northwest corner rises a metallic bell tower. The interior is richly adorned. On the right side near the middle of the nave there is a

The complex is also surrounded by two large cemeteries, respectively Armenian and Greek, each enclosed in high walls.

About one kilometer south of the church is active an important Greek hospital, the Balikli Rum Hastanesi Vakif (“

Balikli Greek Hospital

Foundation”).

Gallery

• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring graveyard
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring graveyard
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring Naarthex
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring pulpit
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring general view
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring left side iconostasis
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring centre of iconostasis
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring right side iconostasis
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring panorama
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring formal chair
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring painting
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring in crypt
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring in crypt
• 
  Church of St. Mary of the Spring fish pond

References

1. ^ Janin (1953), p. 232.
2. ^ After the erection of the sanctuary this Gate was named by the Byzantines Gate of the Spring or Pēgē Gate (Πύλη τῆς Πηγῆς). Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 416
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Janin (1953), p. 233
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Mamboury (1953), p. 208
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Janin (1953), p. 234
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Janin (1953), p. 235
7. ^ Γεωργία, Κλοκίδου (1 January 2014). "Η ελληνική μειονότητα στην Κωνσταντινούπολη μετά την συνθήκη της Λωζάννης και μέχρι το 1991" (in Greek). University of Macedonia. p. 66. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
8. ^ Vryonis, Speros (2000). The great catastrophes: Asia Minor/Smyrna--September 1922; Constantinople--September 6&7, 1955 : a lecture. Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle. p. 14. ...the central cemetery at Sisli and the cemetery of the Patriarchs at Balikli. The former sustained particularly extensive destruction. Crosses and statues were knocked down, sepulchers and vaults opened and the remains of the dead removed and dispersed. At Balıklı, the sarcophaguses of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchs were desecrated.
9. ^ ^{a b} Janin (1953), p. 237
10. ^ ^{a b} Janin (1953), p. 236.
11. ^ Mamboury (1953), p. 208.
12. ^ Eyice (1955), p. 123.
13. ^ Blackwell (1978), p. 62.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Church of St. Mary of the Source (Istanbul).

• Mamboury, Ernest (1953). The Tourists' Istanbul. Istanbul: Çituri Biraderler Basımevi.
• Janin, Raymond (1953). La Géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin. 1. Part: Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique. 3rd Vol. : Les Églises et les Monastères (in French). Paris: Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines.
• Eyice, Semavi (1955). Istanbul. Petite Guide a travers les Monuments Byzantins et Turcs (in French). Istanbul: Istanbul Matbaası.
• ISBN 978-3-8030-1022-3
  .
• Majeska, George P. (1984). "The Monastery of the Virgin at Pege". Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Dumbarton Oaks. pp. 325–326.
  ISBN 978-0-88402-101-8
  .
• Blackwell, Basil (1996) [1978]. "Some karamanlidika inscriptions from the monastery of the Zoodokos Pigi, Balikli, Istanbul". In Clogg, Richard (ed.). Anatolica - Studies in the Greek East in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Aldershot, Hampshire: VARIORUM.
  ISBN 0-86078-543-2
  .