Hodegetria
![A Dionisius version of the Theotokos of Smolensk (ca. 1500)](/Images/godic/202501/18/Odigitriya_Smolenskaya_Dionisiy5213.jpg")
![12th-century plaque found in Torcello Cathedral; a full-length figure like the original in Constantinople](/Images/godic/202501/18/WLA_vanda_Virgin_and_Child_copper_Cathedral_of_Torcello5213.jpg")
![Hodegetria by Berlinghiero of Lucca, (ca 1230) shows the Byzantine influence on Italian 13th-century art (Metropolitan Museum)](/Images/godic/202501/18/Berlinghiero_Berlinghieri_0055214.jpg")
![The shrine of the Hodegetria in Smolensk, as photographed by Prokudin-Gorsky in 1912.](/Images/godic/202501/18/Gorskii_03982u5214.jpg")
A Hodegetria (Greek: Ὁδηγήτρια, literally: "She who shows the Way"; Russian: Одигитрия), or Virgin Hodegetria, is an iconographic depiction of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to Him as the source of salvation for mankind. In the Western Church this type of icon is sometimes called Our Lady of the Way.