Basilica San Luca, Bologna, Italy Stock Photography

The Mother of God, always loved and always with a special place of honour in the heart of the people of Bologna and in the city of Bologna, is venerated with the title of Blessed Virgin of San Luca. In fact, devotion to the Virgin Mother of God was widespread here before the year 1000. The arrival of the icon, apparently carried by a pious pilgrim, was entrusted by the city elders to some nuns from a convent on Colle della Guardia which had been recently built. It was the end of the XII century. Truth or legend? In any case, the fact is that the image of the Madonna of San Luca is one of those `odigitrie` or icons that arrived in the aftermath of closer contacts between East and West.