Η ΖΩΟΑΟΧΟΣ ΠΗΓΗ – The Life-Giving Spring

This icon is entitled The Life-Giving Spring.  It has confused me for quite some time.  I couldn’t quite grasp why the Blessed Virgin is included.  But I think I got it, maybe.  Below sinners come to wash themselves in the waters which flow forth from this spring.  Here the distinction between Mary and the Church is blurred.  Just as when Christ’s two natures were blurred at the Last Supper when Jesus ate His own Body and Blood.  Here Mary, with Christ, who is the Church’s treasure, are the source of the Spring.  The Spring of Baptism, is the spring and water, which the Church uses to give life to the sinner, that life being Christ.