The Madonna Odigitria, or Virgin Hodegetria, is a widespread Christian iconography in Byzantine and medieval Russian art. It depicts the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus in her arms, blessing and holding a rolled scroll, indicated by the Virgin with her right hand. The iconography originated from a relic of the 5th century in Constantinople, attributed to the evangelist Luke and found by Elia Eudocia. The original icon was lost in the fall of Constantinople in 1453, but its cult persists in churches and places of worship in Greece, southern Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia.
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