Russian Hand Painted Icon of Virgin Hodegitria. The Virgin Guide or Odighyria (Одежигрия) is among the most revered icons of the Holy Mother of God. She protects the home and the family. The original of the icon is kept in the main church of the Rila Monastery "Nativity of the Virgin". St. The Virgin Hodigitria is one of the main icons of the Virgin and Child and is among the most revered icons. The Holy Mother of God Hodigitria or Guide is among the most ancient ways of depicting the Mother of God with the Child in the Christian world. This type of icon is especially popular in the Balkans and in Russia. St. The Virgin Hodigitria was a symbol of Constantinople. St. The Mother of God is the protector of the family and the home, guardian of mothers, children and the elderly, of pregnant women and women in labor, of the spirit, faith and love in the home. On the icon, on both sides of the Virgin, you can see St. Stylian (the patron saint of children) and St. Dimitar.