The Life-Giving Spring
An obscure officer in the Roman Army gains a dizzying promotion after performing a simple act of kindness.
450
Roman Empire (Byzantine Era) 330 - 1453
An obscure officer in the Roman Army gains a dizzying promotion after performing a simple act of kindness.
450
Roman Empire (Byzantine Era) 330 - 1453
In the fifth century, about the time when St Patrick was preaching in Ireland, far away in the Roman Empire’s glorious capital of Constantinople an obscure Roman soldier performed a kindness for a blind man which brought the most rapid promotion one could ever imagine.
ON April 4th, 450, Leo Marcellus, a soldier in the Roman Army, was passing by a grove near the Golden Gate of Constantinople when he saw a blind man stumbling about helplessly. Leo led him gently to a seat, and looked about for water.
As he did so, he heard a lady’s voice say, ‘Go into the grove, Emperor, there is water there.’ He could not see the speaker or any ‘Emperor’, but obeyed and sure enough, found a spring bubbling up. ‘Put a little mud on his eyes’ suggested the voice. Leo complied, and to his lasting wonder the blind man’s sight was restored.
Seven years later, Flavius Ardabur Aspar, who had played puppet-master to the Emperors for thirty years, put Leo on the imperial throne, though Leo cut Aspar’s strings soon after. Among Emperor Leo’s first acts was to build a church at the spring, dedicated to Mary – he realised the voice was hers – and consecrated on the Friday after Easter Day, 457.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did Leo go looking for water outside the gates of Constantinople one day in 450?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Leo was outside the Golden Gate of Constantinople. He saw a blind man stumble. He fetched him a drink of water.