Early Life and Calling
Saint Paraskevi was born, by tradition, between roughly 117 and 138 AD in a village near Rome, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Her parents, Agathon and Politia, were Christians of Greek origin who had prayed for many years to be granted a child.
She received the name Paraskevi because she was born on a Friday — in Greek, Paraskevi, meaning the day of preparation — the day associated with the Lord's suffering. The OCA synaxarion describes her as the only daughter of her Christian parents, who from her early years dedicated herself to God and gave considerable time to prayer and the study of Scripture.
She grew into a devout and well-read woman who declined many suitors. Following the death of her parents she became an ascetic, distributed her possessions, and devoted herself to Christian preaching. At about the age of thirty she left Rome to minister as a traveling evangelist throughout the towns and villages of the Roman Empire.
Trials and Confession of Faith
According to her vita, Paraskevi endured a series of persecutions during her missionary travels. While preaching in Therapia, near Constantinople, she was arrested by soldiers of the Emperor Antoninus Pius and charged with blasphemy. The emperor is said to have attempted persuasion, even offering marriage, but she remained steadfast.
Tradition relates that her captors placed a steel helmet lined with nails upon her head and tightened it with a vice, yet no pain seemed to affect her, and her endurance led many onlookers to convert. When she was immersed in a large kettle of oil and tar she is said to have emerged unharmed. Accused of sorcery, she cast the liquid into the emperor's face and blinded him; when she then restored his sight, Antoninus Pius is said to have converted to Christianity and released her.
After the death of Antoninus Pius, the tradition continues, she was arrested again in a city governed by a ruler named Asclepius, who cast her into a pit with a great snake. By making the Sign of the Cross she survived, and the snake fell dead — a miracle that led Asclepius to convert and release her.
Martyrdom
Paraskevi's final arrest, by tradition, was made by a Roman official named Tarasius. The account relates that when she entered the Temple of Apollo and made the Sign of the Cross, the idols within the temple were destroyed.
Enraged, the witnesses beat her brutally, and Tarasius ordered her beheaded. Her martyrdom is placed at around 180 AD.
Relics & Shrines
According to her vita, the relics of Saint Paraskevi eventually reached Constantinople, where they were exhibited around the year 1200 so that pilgrims might venerate them.
Local Epirote tradition holds that her headless body was buried at the Monastery of Saint Paraskevi of Pounta in Thesprotia. Her skull is reported to be housed at Moni Petraki in Athens.
Iconography and Patronage
Saint Paraskevi is widely venerated as a healer of the blind and of diseases of the eyes. In iconography she is often depicted holding two eyeballs in her hands, her most recognizable attribute.
The Church commemorates her on July 26. Her feast liturgy includes readings from Galatians 3:23–4:5 and the Gospel of Mark 5:24–34.
Veneration
The Orthodox Church in America lists the Martyr Paraskevi of Rome among the commemorations of July 26, alongside Saint Jacob Netsvetov (Enlightener of Alaska), the Hieromartyr Hermolaus and the Martyrs Hermippus and Hermocrates, the Venerable Moses the Hungarian, and the Venerable Gerontios of Mount Athos. The OCA entry describes her as a virgin-martyr and devoted Christian.
