“Unburnt Bush” Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated on September 4.

One of the oldest icons of the Unburnt Bush is located in Moscow's Annunciation Cathedral. It was brought to Russia by Palestinian foreigners in 1390 and, according to tradition, it was painted on a piece of the rock where Moses beheld the mysterious Bush.

In the Moscow church of the Unburnt Bush at Khamovniki, there is an Icon which was once in the Palace. The ancient writing is beautiful. The size of the Icon measures 1 arshin 12 vershkov long, and 1 arshin 7 vershkov wide. This Icon is commemorated twice: on September 4, the Feast Day of the Prophet Moses, and on the sixth Sunday after Pascha (the Sunday of the Blind Man), because according to tradition, the Icon was transferred from the Kremlin to the newly-consecrated Khamovniki church on that day.

There was a wondrous event connected with the riza of this Icon, when Russia was attacked by Napoleon in 1812. Before leaving Moscow, a Polish soldier came to Father Alexei Vvedensky, the priest of the Novodevichii Monastery, and gave him the riza from the Unburnt Bush Icon, begging him to return it to the church from which it was taken. The soldier confessed that ever since he took the riza, he had been unable to find peace, and he was tormented by an unbearable melancholia.

In the same church there is an Icon of the Unburnt Bush (which was donated in 1835) and a smaller, especially revered Icon dating from 1837. It depicts someone praying before the Mother of God. In the church there is a special manuscript Service to the Icon with the note: "This Service is chanted on Holy Mount Sinai, whenever someone requests it, or whenever there is terrible lightning."

In 1822, in the city of Slavyansk, Kharkov gubernia, fires caused by arson became more frequent. The residents were at a loss about what to do. Then it was revealed in a dream to a pious old woman named Belnitskaya that if they painted an Icon of the Unburnt Bush, and served a Moleben before it, the fires would stop. Belnitskaya told the Archpriest about her dream, and the Icon was painted right away. After the Liturgy, a Moleben was served before it. On that very day, there was another fire, and the arsonist was caught. A crafty young woman named Maura had set all the fires. Then the fires ceased, and the grateful residents had a kiot made for the Icon with the inscription: "In remembrance of the city's deliverance from fire in 1822." The Icon is in the church of the Holy Trinity.

There is also a revered icon of the Unburnt Bush in the village of Kubenskoye, Vologda Province.