Life-Giving Springs and The Mother of God Zhivonosen Istochnik / Zoodochos Pege / Balŭkliyska. Byzantine-Greek-Ottoman Intercultural Influence and Its Aftereffects in Iconography, Religious Writings and Ritual Practices in the Region of Plovdiv

This article looks at the veneration of healing springs (ayasmos) in Orthodox Christian churches and monasteries in the region of Plovdiv and Asenovgrad (Bulgaria) to raise the problem of its connections to Byzantine, Greek, and Ottoman religious cultures of Constantinople/Istanbul. My argument is based on fieldwork and research I conducted in 2012–2014 to seek an answer to a research question that had kept me intrigued me for over a decade: namely, what is the meaning, in practical terms, of the claim frequently made by Orthodox Christians that the various religious rituals they engaged in (with the exception of funerary ones) were practiced “for health” (za zdrave).