Sunday, July 26

Early Church · d. c. 140

St Paraskeve of Rome

Righteous virgin martyr of Rome

Paraskeve was born near Rome to pious Christian parents, Agathon and Politia, who after long childlessness dedicated her to God; because she was born on a Friday they named her Paraskeve, the Greek name of that day, which recalls the Lord's Passion. After her parents' death she gave away her inheritance, embraced the ascetic life, and traveled from city to city boldly preaching Christ — a rare public ministry for a woman of the second century. Arrested in the reign of Antoninus Pius, she endured tortures unharmed; tradition tells that the emperor himself, blinded when he ordered her tormented, was healed at her prayer and released her, and that she continued preaching until under a later persecutor she was beheaded. The Greek people honor her with exceptional warmth as a healer, especially of diseases of the eyes, and her churches and springs are found throughout the Orthodox world.

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