Turkestan Diocese and Folk Orthodoxy: The Case of Life-Giving Spring

Abstract

Construction of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, “The Life-Giving Spring,” was completed in 2008. The church was built next to a small spring that has been venerated by the local population since the 19^th century. A large number of coins from the 19^th and 20^th centuries were discovered in the bed of this spring. These coins serve as evidence that local people have venerated this spring throughout the imperial and Soviet periods. In the 19^th century, the official Church imposed strict control over popular Orthodox traditions. Yet, at the beginning of the 20^th century, the Turkestan Diocesan Committee decided to recognize the veneration of the spring. In the Soviet period, very little documentary evidence of this tradition was preserved, but this evidence suggests that popular Orthodox practices were far more widespread than commonly assumed.