September 17
Unburnt Bush, Russian Orthodox Church
St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai
in Egypt is home to a
plant said to be the original bush that Moses saw flaming in the presence of
God. "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the
bush was not consumed" (Exodus 3:2). The Orthodox
Church regards the bush that burned without being consumed as symbolic of the
God-bearer, who gave birth to Christ yet remained a virgin. In the Sinai
monastery's Chapel of the Burning Bush an
icon (left) depicts the Virgin and Child in the fiery bush, with Moses kneeling
barefooted between her and St. Catherine. "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). St.
Catherine's Monastery honors the Most Holy Theotokos of the Bush on March 25,
Feast of the Annunciation. (See "HOLY BUSH," Mount Sinai Monastery,
www.sinaimonastery.com/index.php/en/description/the-monastery/holy-bush.)
In Russia, the Virgin of the Burning Bush is usually depicted against superimposed diamonds, green for the bush and red for the fire. Such icons (right) are often hung in kitchens as protection from fire. The Russian Orthodox Church honors the Unburnt Bush Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos on the same feast day as Moses: September 4 in the old calendar, September 17 in the new. (Sinai icon from The Getty, www.getty.edu; Russian icon from Espergaerde Gymnasium og HF, www.eg-gym.dk.)
Also commemorated this date:
 | Santa Maria in Vallicella, Rome, Italy. First stone of new church laid, 1575. |
| Santa Maria de Sauccu, Bortigali, Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy. Statue of Santa Maria Manna returns to town from mountain shrine and visits residents, accompanied by gunshots. |
| Santa María la Real, Nájera, La Rioja, Spain (St. Mary the Royal). Fiesta: solemn mass, procession; games, food, music. |
| Virgen de Muskilda, Ochagavia, Navarra, Spain. Romería & raffle. |
| Nuestra Señora del Socorro, Palomas, Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain (Our Lady of Help). Fiesta. |
| Blessed Virgin Mary, Portsmouth, North Carolina, USA. On Sept. 17, 1876, the Rebecca Clyde was wrecked in a storm off Cape Hatteras. In the water, Thomas Price, 16, en route to seminary in Maryland, had a brief vision of the Blessed Virgin and was saved. Price went on to become a priest and cofounder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. |