Hand-painted icon of the Virgin Hodegetria

The name comes from the Hodegon monastery in Constantinople, which kept an icon that tradition attributed to the evangelist Luke. Carried in procession through the city and regarded as protector of the empire, it gave rise to countless copies throughout the Christian world. The Smolensk and Kazan icons in Russia are Hodegetrias.

• ◆In Bari the Madonna Odegitria, venerated in the cathedral, is co-patron of the city with Saint Nicholas.
• ◆In Sicily devotion to the «Madonna dell'Itria» (from the Greek Hodegetria) is widespread from Palermo to eastern Sicily.
• ◆In Rome the Salus Populi Romani of Santa Maria Maggiore is generally traced to the Hodegetria type.
• ◆In Calabria, Apulia and Basilicata many churches keep Madonnas of Constantinople and Hodegetrias of Italo-Greek tradition.

In the Hodegetria the Mother looks towards the one who prays, her face composed and solemn; the Child, dressed like a small adult, blesses and holds a scroll: he is the Wisdom of God. Unlike the Eleousa, the Virgin of Tenderness, the faces do not touch: the icon speaks not of intimacy but of proclamation. It is an icon for families, for travellers and pilgrims, for those seeking direction, for communities devoted to the Madonna of Constantinople. Like every icon by Concetta Basile, it is fully gilded with 23¾ karat gold, with inscriptions in Greek or Latin, and is commissioned with an offering proportionate to the time and materials of the work.