Bucharest, July 10, 2026
Photo: basilica.ro The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has officially added the Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God to the Church’s liturgical calendar, setting September 4 as its annual feast day.
The Synod approved the decision at a meeting on July 2. The date was chosen because the Church also commemorates the Prophet Moses on September 4, whose encounter with the burning bush on Mount Sinai inspired the icon’s imagery, reports the Basilica News Agency.
The icon is kept at St. Anthimos Monastery in Bucharest. It was brought from Russia by monks who withdrew to Mount Athos in the early 20th century. In 1929, it came into the possession of the future Hieroschemamonk Daniil Sandu (Tudor), who later brought it to Antim Monastery. After his arrest in 1958, the icon passed to St. Petronie (Tănase) of Prodromos Skete on Mount Athos, then to Archimandrite Benedict (Ghiuș), who willed it to St. Sofian of Antim.
Archimandrite Antipa (Burghelea) of St. Anthimos Monastery told the Basilica News Agency that the icon is credited with a notable episode from Sandu Tudor’s life. In 1941, while working as a supervisor at a technical school in Vălenii de Munte, Sandu Tudor angered a group of men after trying to correct workplace injustices. The men learned where he slept and planned to shoot him through his window at night. The icon was in his room, and one evening he felt moved to shift his bed directly beneath it. According to Burghelea, three men fired sixteen bullets through the window at the spot where they believed the bed to be, but Sandu Tudor escaped unharmed.
The icon’s imagery draws on the Biblical account of Moses and the Burning Bush. Its central image is an eight-pointed star with the Theotokos at its center, surrounded by angels. The four corners depict Old Testament prefigurations of the Panagia: Moses before the Burning Bush, Ezekiel before the Shut Gate, Jacob’s Ladder, and the Tree of Jesse. The icon has traditionally been venerated as offering protection against fires and other natural disasters.
The icon is also tied to the Burning Bush hesychast movement founded at Antim Monastery, which used the image as a symbol of prayer amid daily life. Fr. Antipa said the icon calls monks, clergy, and laymento interior prayer and spiritual life without withdrawing from the world.
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