Our Lady Of Garde Or Guard Or Guide (Hodegetria)
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The Greek word Hodegetria means Guide of the Way and distinguishes a large number of icons of Mary of a primitive type, in which the Child is held in the Mother’s left arm.
Mary, our Guide, is the patron of icon painters
Today Our Lady of Guide, Guard, and what other loving title we may give her, is our Lady of the Highway. Recently the Catholics of Lesterville, Missouri, got together and built a most attractive shrine to Our Lady of the Highway with the hope that this shrine would bring Our Lady closer to the predominantly non-Catholic population of that part of our country. Their hopes have been realized. Our Lady smiles a blessing on motorists passing on Route 21; since, many of the non-Catholics showed such a great interest in the building of the shrine, and thus Mary has been the cause of an awakening of interest in the Catholic Church on the part of our “separated brethren”.
