Icon Holy Friday

Saint Paraskevi was born in Rome during the reign of Emperor Antoninus (138-160 AD). Her parents, who were also Christians, saw to her Christian education, and she was their only child, as they had promised to God in case he would grant them a child. The child was born on a Friday and was given this name.

Her parents died when Friday was only 20 years old, and she distributed all her property to the poor and devoted herself to preaching the Christian faith in Rome and the outskirts of the city. Her actions did not go down well with the pagan emperor Antoninus. He ordered her to be arrested and promised her all the riches of the world in order to sacrifice to idols.

The Saint remained steadfast in her faith, then subjected her to the torture of the red-hot helmet. The Saint endured with fortitude.
Then Antoninus gave orders and they put her in a boiler with hot oil and tar. He saw the Saint intact and could not believe it. So he put his face close to the boiler – as he could not explain how the saint had remained intact – to test whether it was really hot, and immediately he was blinded.

St. Paraskevi gave Antoninus his light, and he believed in Christ after that and ordered the persecutions against Christians to stop. He also freed St. Paraskevi, who continued to preach the Gospel in many places until she reached Greece.

In Thebes, a pagan lord subjected her to horrible torture, which she endured patiently, to finally fall asleep by death by decapitation.