Saint Paraskevi of Iconium (also known as ''Paraskeva Pyatnitsa'') is venerated as a Christian virgin

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

. According to Christian tradition, she was born to a rich family of Iconium. Her parents were Christian, and Paraskevi was named as such (the name means "Friday" in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

) because she was baptized on a Friday and because Friday was the day of Christ's Passion. Paraskevi became a preacher, and according to tradition, converted a man named Antoninus to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. She was subsequently martyred at Iconium during the persecutions of Diocletian.

Veneration

An account of her martyrdom was written by John of Euboea. Paraskeva's cult and attributes became confused with that of other saints with the same name as well as pre-Christian deities of the Slavs.Nicholas Valentine Riasanovsky, Gleb Struve, Thomas Eekman, ''California Slavic Studies'', Volume 11 (University of California Press, 1980), 39. As one scholar asks:

Was Parasceve, or Paraskeva, an early Christian maiden named in honor of the day of the
Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...
? Or was she a personification of that day, pictured cross in hand to assist the fervor of the faithful? And was the Paraskeva of the South Slavs the same who made her appearance in northern Russia?

Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa "developed a personality and functions of her own on Russian soil." Icons of the 13th-15th centuries from Novgorod depict Paraskeva as an ascetic figure wearing the red of martyrdom. She holds an Eastern cross, a scroll professing her faith, or a vessel that holds the perfume of martyrdom. She was depicted with St. Anastasia or

St. Barbara Saint Barbara ( grc, Ἁγία Βαρβάρα; cop, Ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ Ⲃⲁⲣⲃⲁⲣⲁ; ; ), known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian Lebanese and Greek saint and martyr. Accounts place her in t ...

or St. Juliana; sometimes she is depicted with male saints. In Russia, Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa was the patroness of traders and fairs, and of marriage.

Eastern Slavs

The image of the Great Martyr Paraskeva in the lands of the eastern Slavs was closely associated with the ancient cult of the pagan Mokosha, to whom women dedicated Friday afternoon. In the people the saint received the double name Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa. The Slavs had the Great Martyr Paraskeva ( el, αΠαρασκευή directly called ''Pyatnitsa, Pyatina, Petka.'' The Russified form of the name was also popular - '' Praskovya'', diminutive. Parasha'', ''Pana''. In Russian everyday life in the old days St. Paraskeva was so called: '' Paraskeva Friday''. From here went many churches "in the name of St. Friday. The word "Friday" almost became a feminine name in its own right, which could exist alongside Praskovia, like the names Warrior and Postnik. In Serbia and Bulgaria they call "Sveta Petka" ("Saint Friday").

References

External links

* http://sv-paraskeva.if.ua/ Catholic source {{DEFAULTSORT:Paraskevi Of Iconium Ante-Nicene Christian martyrs Saints from Roman Anatolia Ante-Nicene Christian female saints