Icon with Saint Paraskeva the Righteous from Iași - embroidered, framed, 21x27cm.
Saint Paraskeva, also known as Saint Friday in Greek (Αγία Παρασκευή), is revered with sanctity in the Holy Orthodox Church and is especially venerated in Orthodox Christian countries such as Romania, Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria. She is considered the protector of Moldova.
Born in the village of Epivat in Thrace, near Constantinople, in the last decades of the 10th century, Saint Paraskeva was raised in a family of devout wealthy believers who instilled in her a love and respect for the holy. She was guided towards virtue, fasting, prayer, and good deeds, having worthy examples in her parents.
At the age of ten, in a church dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos, she heard the words of the Savior: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). This call of the Lord ignited in her a desire to live in complete holiness, so she distributed all her possessions to the poor and, renouncing the pleasures of the world, withdrew into monastic life.
Every year, on October 14th, the entire Orthodox Church celebrates the life and holiness of Saint Paraskeva the Righteous. Highly honored in Moldova for over three hundred and fifty years, her relics rest in Iași, being a source of blessing and healing, both spiritual and bodily, for all who pray to her with humility.
The relics of Saint Paraskeva were transferred from Belgrade to Constantinople in 1521. In the year 1641, on June 13th, her relics were brought to Iași from Constantinople by Prince Vasile Lupu and placed in the church he himself founded, the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs. Since 1889, her relics have been kept in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași.
On her feast day, a large pilgrimage takes place annually in Iași, attended by hundreds of thousands of believers from across the country. This pilgrimage to her relics in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași has become one of the most significant religious events in Romania. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather each year in Iași on the second weekend of October to honor the memory of Saint Paraskeva the Righteous, and the city itself celebrates these days as its own.
