Paraskevi of Iconium

Saint Paraskevi of Iconium, the Great Martyr, called "Friday", was a Christian virgin of Iconium in Asia Minor in the third century, who died beheaded in the persecution of Diocletian. She is commemorated on 28 October. Among the Slavs she is venerated as Saint Petka, Saint Friday or Paraskeva Pyatnitsa.

According to tradition she was born into a rich family, her father a senator, of Christian parents who honoured Friday, the day of Christ's Passion, and therefore named her Paraskevi, "Friday" in Greek. Beautiful, she chose not the way of marriage but that of serving God by preaching the Gospel. After her parents' death she gave her wealth to the poor, led a strict life of fasting, vigil and prayer, helped the needy, and her example brought many pagans to the faith. She converted, according to tradition, a man named Antoninus. When Diocletian began the persecution he ordered Aetius, governor of Galatia, to destroy the Christian faith in his cities. Aetius went to Iconium. Paraskevi was seized, imprisoned, cruelly beaten and finally beheaded. An account of her martyrdom was written by John of Euboea.

Veneration of Paraskevi merged with that of other saints of the same name and with the old pagan cult of Mokosh, to whom eastern Slavic women dedicated Friday. She received the double name Paraskeva-⁠Pyatnitsa, and in Serbia and Bulgaria she is called Saint Petka. The Russian form Praskovya, with Parasha and Pana, was very popular. Icons of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries from Novgorod show her as an ascetic in red, bearing a cross, a scroll with her confession of faith, or a vessel of perfume. She is sometimes shown with Anastasia, Barbara or Juliana. In Russia she was patroness of traders and fairs, of marriage, of fields and cattle. Several Slavic churches bear her name, among them the Paraskeva Pyatnitsa chapel in Krasnoyarsk. Some old northern Russian icons show her on the back of an icon of the Mother of God. The Church also honours other saints named Paraskevi.