In the course of three centuries, from the ninth to the eleventh, the discovery and the disinterment of saints’ bodies, their solemn removal (Fig. 281), the foundation of monasteries, oratories, and churches in their honour, the institution of anniversary fêtes, and the setting apart of a number of private devotions at services, relating not only to relics, but to holy images, abound in all the annals of the Catholic world. This is supposed to be the epoch when were introduced into Europe those ancient images, in sculpture and in painting, of the Holy Mother of Christ, which were revered in the Middle Ages just as they are in the present day; among these were black virgins, which were, no doubt, of Abyssinian origin; tawny or yellowish virgins, from some country of Africa; and brown and Byzantine virgins, of a stern and hard-featured type, wanting in expression. These images, all of which were very coarsely executed--though the last-mentioned seem to be copied from a picture attributed to St. Luke (Fig. 283)--often peculiar in their expression and character, but most of them of unquestionable antiquity, were common in Italy, Spain, the Mediterranean Isles, and many of the southern provinces of France. They were much rarer in the west of Europe, in Belgium, Germany, and Ireland, where, however, they were looked upon with just as much veneration--as, for instance, the Notre-Dame de Luxembourg, which was tawny. In the North, in Hungary, Poland, and Russia, but especially in Russia (Figs. 284 and 285), there were only the dark and Byzantine images of the Virgin. [Illustration: Fig. 283.--The Virgin of St. Luke (so called).--An image painted on wood, placed in the Church of Sta. Maria Maggiore, now San Paolo-fuor-gli-Muri, at Rome, in the Fourth or Fifth Century.] [Illustration: Fig. 284.--Greek _Panagia_, or Image of the Holy Virgin, with a Portrait of Jesus Christ upon her bosom.--From the “Antiquities of Russia,” by Sevastianof (Thirteenth Century).]