A healing spring in the village of Momchilovtsi in Smolyan has been helping believers with its miraculous power for more than a century. It is known that its healing effect is strongest on the night before St. George’s Day and on the feast itself. “We in Momchilovtsi are rich with our spring. From midnight on May 6 until late in the evening, the flow of people who want to touch the healing water does not stop. Hundreds crowd in front of the spring and everyone wants to pour some of the water to take home.
It is an old belief that the water of St. George’s Day is used throughout the year for illnesses and against urticaria,” said Zlatka Kisova, secretary of the community centre “Svetlina” in Momchilovtsi. The spring is famous not only in the region, but also in the interior of the country and abroad. People travel hundreds of kilometres and come by bus especially for the healing water on St George’s Day. This day is the most revered holiday – by Christians and Muslims. Once upon a time, the old people used the dew of St. George’s Day and the water from the watering hole to curdle the milk. The spring is nestled in a pine forest at the foot of Mt. Ilija” – about a kilometer from the village center.
A legend tells how the healing water gushed out. It was 1908. Childless for 18 years, Velika and Anastas waited for the moment when, after a pilgrimage to the Bachkovo Monastery, the woman found out she was pregnant. Her belly grew from day to day, but no birth occurred after the 9th month. The imaginary pregnancy lasted a year and they began to search for a cure. At that time the fame of the clairvoyant Cortese from Borisovgrad was spreading. Wishing to free Velika from the burden she was carrying, the couple sought her help. Korteza foretold that in their fields on Mt. “St. Elijah” would flow healing water. She ordered the family to dig a small puddle from which the healing spring would gush, and Velika would drink from it.
So they did… And the miracle happened – they could not have a child, but the woman was cured. The miraculous well was covered with a small chapel. About 2,000 people gathered for the consecration on August 2, 1910 /Ilinden/, and Cortese also came. The little church acquired its present dimensions in 1927 /according to the book by Kostadin Kanevski “The Miraculous Ayazmo and the chapels in Momchilovtsi”/. Hundreds of people tell how the water helped them with eye and skin diseases, even with dementia.
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