The epigonation is embroidered on red silk fabric using expensive materials: gold and silver wire, and multicolored silk thread. The Virgin of the Bush is depicted in the center, and a section of the monastery on the bottom. To the left we find Moses with his flock, and to the right Saint Catherine. The scene is enveloped with a winding vine band – the Bush – on the ends of which two angels hold up the bishop’s emblems. Three angels stand on the three upper corners, with Aaron found on the bottom corner. Various inscriptions embroidered within the scene contain an invocation of Cyril of Sinai to the Unburnt Bush, and the date 1746. The Baroque style of the scene appears to reproduce an earlier woodblock also preserved in the monastery today. The figures are embroidered in relief, while the faces are painted. This item was produced in one of the workshops that flourished in Constantinople at the time, and is listed in the property inventory of Cyril as “an admirable work of art, commissioned by the respected [Archbishop] in Constantinople”.
