After the flooding of the Tiber river in 1530, a woman from the Borgo rione named Brianda, who had been sick for a long time on one hand, prayed for her own recovery an ancient image of the Virgin Mary that had come to light during the inundation. This was placed on a surviving wall of a ruined house that had belonged to the noblewoman Lucrezia Salviati. It had been destroyed during the sack of Rome in 1527 and in time it had become a garbage dump. Upon news of the healing, the painting's fame for its thaumaturgical virtues spread throughout the district, and the ruined house became the destination of a procession of the sick and needy who asked the Virgin for a grace.