“Immaculate one, woman of infinite beauty, watch over this city, over this humanity...” Pope Leo offered this prayer to Mary on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception after blessing a floral bouquet to lay at the feet of a 12 meter statue dedicated to the Virgin in Rome near the Spanish Steps. Within 100 years of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the tradition of sending flowers to this statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had begun with Pope Pius XII. | Vatican News