Early Life and Asceticism
According to her Life, Paraskevi was born in the village of Epivates, situated between Silistra and Constantinople, to a pious and wealthy family. Sources record that her older brother Euthymios entered monastic life and became a bishop.
At about ten years of age, while attending divine services, she was struck by the Gospel words on self-denial and began giving away her clothing to the poor, causing distress within her family. After the death of her parents, she distributed her inheritance and devoted herself to prayer and fasting at the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Heraclea Pontica for roughly five years.
She then made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and withdrew across the Jordan River into the wilderness, living ascetically until the age of twenty-five, when an angel is said to have commanded her return to her homeland. She reposed at about twenty-seven in the village of Katikratia after two more years of fasting and prayer, and was buried in an unmarked grave near the sea.
Relics and Shrines
Paraskevi's relics are renowned for their extensive travels across the Balkans. According to tradition, her identity was revealed in a dream after a sailor's body was buried atop her grave; her relics were found incorrupt and fragrant, and were enshrined at a church of the Holy Apostles, where healings were reported over roughly 175 years.
In 1238 the relics were translated to the cathedral at Veliko Tarnovo, capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In 1393 they were brought to the Ružica Church in Belgrade, Serbia. After Belgrade fell to the Ottomans in 1521, they were transferred to the patriarchal cathedral in Constantinople. In 1641 they were given to the Moldavian prince and installed in the Monastery of the Three Hierarchs at Iași (Jassy), and in 1888 they were moved to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași following a fire.
Today the shrine at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each October. Other churches dedicated to her include the Church of St Paraskeva in Nesebar and the Church of St Petka of the Saddlers in Sofia (Bulgaria), and the St Petka Chapel at Kalemegdan in Belgrade (Serbia).
Veneration and Legacy
Widely venerated across the Orthodox Balkans, Paraskevi is known under several names — Paraskevi, Petka, and Paraskeva the New — reflecting her devotion in the Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romanian traditions. Her veneration spread from Bulgaria into Wallachia and Moldavia during the fourteenth century.
She is regarded as the patroness of embroiderers, needle workers, spinners, and weavers. In 1947, her relics were carried in procession through drought-stricken counties of Moldavia. Her feast is kept on October 14.
Hagiography
Numerous hagiographies attest to her enduring veneration. A Greek Life was composed by Deacon Basilikos around 1150, commissioned by Patriarch Nicholas IV Mouzelon. In the fourteenth century, Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovo wrote a Life of Saint Petka of Tarnovo and is credited with establishing the October 14 commemoration.
Later accounts include those of Metropolitan Mattheos of Mira (1605), Metropolitan Varlaam of Moldavia (1643), and Bishop Melchisedec of Roman (1889).
