Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "The Unburnt Bush" (1680)

Commemorated on September 4

This wonderworking icon is in Moscow, in the Church of the Unburned Bush, close to the Dievichiago Field. There is a special service to this icon in manuscript with the title: "This service is sung on the Holy Mount Sinai, whenever someone wants it and whenever there is a terrible thunderstorm". Now this celebration is established in the memory of Moses the prophet who was worthy in the burning and unburned bush to foresee the salvation of the human race by the Son of God, who was incarnate unburned from the Most Holy Virgin and is kept whole in her ever-virginity. "As the bush burns and is not burned, so the Virgin gave birth to Thee", sings the Holy Church (Dogmatic tone 2) ¹⁾. The depiction of the Mother of God of the Unburned Bush shows an eight pointed star made from two sharp four pointed stars with concave ends, from which one is red (fiery) reminding one of fire, as embraced in the Moses vision of the bush; the other is of green color indicating the natural color of the bush, which it protected, being embraced by a fiery flame. The Most Holy Virgin with the Eternal Child is represented in the middle of the eight-pointed star, as if in the bush. On the corners of the red four cornered star are represented: the man, the lion, the calf and the eagle, seen as signs of the special features of the four Evangelists about the life and teaching of that Divine and Immaterial Fire, Which unburned was accepted in the womb of the Most Holy Virgin Mary.

Notes:
¹⁾ On this basis there also was a belief that the Mother of God Herself was unburned from the fire of God, and saves from material fire as from lightning and fire. Therefore a custom spread among simple people is to go with a circle of fire with the Icon of the Unburned Bush for the extinguishing of fires.