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The Icon of the Mother of God „The Unburnt Bush”; Hieromartyr Babylas, bishop of Antioch; Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses; Martyr Petronius

September 3, 2026 · 1 min read

Orthodox Calendar, September 4 The Icon of the Mother of God „The Unburnt Bush” The icon of the Mother of God known as „The Unburnt Bush” depicts the biblical event from the Old Testament in which the Holy Prophet Moses, while at the foot of Mount Sinai (Horeb), saw a bush that was burning but was not consumed by the flames ( Exodus , chapter 3).

Hearing the voice of God from the bush, he was called to lead the Jews out of Egyptian bondage. The Holy Fathers saw in the unburnt bush a foreshadowing of the Mother of God, who, although she received the fire of the Godhead within her womb, was not consumed by it.

The earliest icons depicting the Unburnt Bush were painted at the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai. From the 13th century onwards, the icon of the Bush was often accompanied by the depiction of the Mother of God with the Christ Child. In the 16th century, Russian iconographers created a new type of the Unburnt Bush icon, rich in symbolism. At its centre is the icon of the Holy Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, set against a background formed by two overlapping quadrilaterals, one red and the other green, representing both the leaves of the bush and the fire…

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Florin Matei

I also saw an icon like this at the Sinai monastery two years ago, when I was with the youth group. The symbol with the two red and green squares seemed very interesting to me, especially since it explains exactly the connection with the burning pyre without being consumed. Are there any older copies from the 16th century still found here in Timișoara?

Florian Becker

Yes, the two overlapping squares in red and green are really obvious - one for the fire, the other for the leaves of the bush. I saw an icon like this in our Hamburg church last year at the Moses Day celebration; it's just to the right of the entrance. Here in Germany it is rarely painted, right?