Paraskeva of the Balkans

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For other saints named Paraskevi or Parascheva, see List of saints named Paraskevi.
Saint

Paraskeva of the Balkans
Metropolitan Cathedral of Iaşi, Romania; Church of St Paraskeva, Nesebar
Feast14 October
27 October
Patronageembroiderers, needle workers, spinners, weavers[2]

Paraskeva of the Balkans

Virgin Mary. After living in Chalcedon and Heraclea Pontica, she settled in a convent in the desert near the Jordan River, where she died at the age of 27. The cult of Saint Paraskeva began to spread in the 14th century from Bulgaria into the Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. There was confusion over her identity and attributes because her Greek name "paraskevi" means "Friday," and translations in other languages, such as Romanian and Serbian, were "Saint Friday". Her cult continues to be celebrated in many Orthodox countries, and her feast day is commemorated on October 14 in the Eastern Orthodox Church
.

Vita

Visual hagiography of St Paraskeva (Patriarchate of Peć, 1719-20).

Paraskeva was born in the town of Epivates (today's Selimpaşa, close to Istanbul) on the shore of the Sea of Marmara.[3] Her parents were wealthy landowners.[2]

Legend says that as a child, Paraskeva heard in a church

desert near the Jordan River
.

When she was 25, an

Eastern Thrace called Mimarsinan
.

Relics

Discovery

According to Christian tradition, many years after Paraskeva's death, an old sinner was buried near her long-forgotten grave in

translated to the church of the Holy Apostles in Kallikrateia.[2]

Relics' journey

In subsequent years, Paraskeva's relics were

transferred to various churches in the region.[2]

Bulgaria

In 1238, the relics were transferred from Kallikrateia to Veliko Tarnovo, capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire.[4] In Bulgaria she is venerated as Sveta Petka Tarnovska, "of Tarnovo".

Serbia

In 1393, they were transferred to Belgrade,[4] specifically the Ružica Church.

Constantinople

When Belgrade fell to Ottoman forces in 1521, the relics were transferred to Constantinople.[2]

Moldavia, now Romania

In 1641, the relics were transferred to

Iaşi, Moldavia (nowadays, eastern part of Romania).[2]

In 1888, they were transferred to the

Metropolitan Cathedral of Iaşi.[2]

Veneration

Confusion with other characters

The cult of Paraskeva of the Balkans became conflated[when?] with that of other saints with the same name as well as pre-Christian deities of the Slavs, leading to confusion about Paraskeva's identity and attributes.[5]

The confusion occurred in part because the original Greek name of Paraskeva was "paraskevi," meaning "preparation [of the Sabbath]," understood as "Friday," and was literally translated to various languages as "Saint Friday" (such as "Sveta Petka" in Serbian, "Sfânta Vineri" in Romanian). Scholars sometimes misunderstood the translated name and connected it with a certain character from folk tales having a similar name.[citation needed]

As one scholar asked:

Was Parasceve, or Paraskeva, an early Christian maiden named in honor of the day of the Crucifixion? 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?[5]

The cults of the 3rd-century

Slavic deity associated with Friday, alternatively known as Petka, Pyatnitsa, or Zhiva.[6][7]
Attributes, such as the association with spinning, were also merged into the cult of these saints.[6]

The cult of Saint Paraskeva, also known as Saint Petka, began to spread in the 14th century from Bulgaria into the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia.[citation needed]

1950 separation between homonymous characters

Any confusion was clarified once the Romanian Orthodox Church decided on 28 February 1950 to generalise the cult of Saint Parascheva the New.[8] The generalisation of the cult was celebrated on 14 October 1955 in the Iaşi Cathedral in the presence of high-rank clerics from Bulgaria and Russia. Today, there is a complete separation between the 10th-century Saint Paraskeva the New, and Saint Paraskevi of Iconium, as well as the folk character derived from pre-Christian mystical beliefs.[citation needed]

Modern-day veneration in Romania

1947 procession

A severe drought in 1946-47 affected Moldavia, adding to the misery left by the

Neamţ,Baia and Botoşani County|Botoşani Counties. The offerings collected on this occasion were distributed, based on Metropolitan Justinian's decisions, to orphans, widows, invalids, school cafeterias, churches under construction, and to monasteries in order to feed the sick, and old or feeble monks.[9]

Annual Iași pilgrimage

Pilgrimage at the shrines located in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași has become one of the major religious events in Romania. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather each year in Iași in the second weekend of October to commemorate Saint Parascheva, while the city itself established its Celebration Days at the same time.

Hagiographies

In the 14th century, Bishop Euthymius of Tarnovo (1332-1402) wrote a notable biography of Paraskeva - "Hagiography of Saint Petka of Tarnovo".[10] The bishop's work was inspired from the Greek vita of Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans, written by deacon Basilikos in 1150 on the request of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nicholas IV Mouzelon. Hagiographies were also written by Metropolitan Mattheos of Mira in 1605, Metropolitan Varlaam of Moldavia in 1643, Nikodimos the Athonite (19th century), and Romanian bishop Melchisedec of Roman in 1889.[11] Some modern Romanian theologians published studies about Paraskeva: Gheorghe Păvăloiu (1935), Arhimandrite Varahil Jitaru (1942), D. Stănescu (1938), M. Țesan (1955), Scarlat Porcescu, and Mircea Păcurariu.[citation needed]

Dedicated churches

Birthplace church in Epivates

A church dedicated to her was built in Epivates (present-day

which?] demolished the old church in order to construct a much bigger one on the same site. The building, completed after 6 years, re-used parts of the 1327–1341 Byzantine tower of Duke Alexis Apokaukos as building material. It was the biggest church in the whole of Eastern Thrace (16 m in height, 26 m in width and 30 m in length), a real jewel that could be seen from kilometres away.[citation needed
] It was completely demolished in the spring of 1979; a park occupies the site.

Extant notable churches

Saint Paraskeva on a Serbian Orthodox icon with church in the background

Worldwide, there are many churches named in honour of or dedicated to St Paraskeva. Some of the more notable include:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parascheva of the Balkans.

Notes

  1. Ancient Greek: Ὁσία Παρασκευὴ ἡ Ἐπιβατινή, Greek: Οσία Παρασκευή η Επιβατινή ή Νέα, Romanian: Sfânta Cuvioasă Parascheva, or Serbian: Петка Параскева, Serbian
    : Петка Македонка, Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, Parascheva of Tirnovo

References

  1. ^ "Преподобная Параске́ва-Пе́тка Сербская". azbyka.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-05-20.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Saint Petca Parasceva". Patron Saints Index. 2010. Archived from the original on June 15, 2010. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
  3. ISBN 90-04-16831-1
    , p. 274.
  4. ^ a b "St. Petca-Parasceva". Orthodox America. 2010. Archived from the original on January 11, 2001. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
  5. ^ a b Nicholas Valentine Riasanovsky, Gleb Struve, Thomas Eekman, California Slavic Studies, Volume 11 (University of California Press, 1980), 39.
  6. ^ a b Joanna Hubbs, Mother Russia: the feminine myth in Russian culture. Volume 842 of Midland Book (Indiana University Press, 1993), p. 117.
  7. ^ Rybakov, Boris (2010). "Ancient Slavic Paganism". Bibliotekar.ru. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
  8. ^ Pacurariu, Mircea (1994). Sfinți daco-romani si români [Daco-Roman and Romanian Saints] (in Romanian). Iaşi: Editura Mitropoliei Moldovei şi Bucovinei.
  9. ^ "Dobrogea". Centrul de pelerinaj. 2010. Archived from the original on August 13, 2009. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
  10. ^ Life of Saint Paraskeva by Bishop (Saint) Evtimy of Tarnovo. Romanian title: Viața Sfintei Parascheva, de Sfântul Eftimie din Tarnovo, Editura Agapis.
  11. ^ Life and miracles of Saint Paraskeva the New and the History of Her Relics, by Bishop Melchisedec of Roman. Romanian title: Viața și minunile Cuvioasei noastre Parascheva cea nouă și istoricul sfintelor ei moaște, București, 1889.
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