Troparion in Tone 5
Wise and praiseworthy martyr of Christ Paraskeva:
By accepting courage and rejecting feminine weakness
You conquered the devil!
You put your torturer to shame by crying out:
Come, rend my body with your sword and burn it with fire,
For I go rejoicing to Christ my bridegroom!
By her prayers, O Christ God, save our souls!
Kontakion in Tone 8
Come, O faithful,
let us sing with one accord a special hymn to Paraskeva!
Triumphant in her fight she shines as a brilliant star above the world;
Expelling the darkness of error,
she pours down grace upon the faithful.
Therefore, let us cry out to her:
Rejoice, O Victorious Martyr!
Holy Virgin Martyr Paraskeva of Rome was
the only daughter of Christian parents, Agathon and Politia, and from
her early years she dedicated herself to God. She spent much of
her time in prayer and the study of the Holy Scriptures. After the death
of her parents St Paraskeva distributed all of her inheritance to the
poor, and consecrated her virginity to Christ. Emulating the holy
Apostles, she began to preach to the pagans about Christ, converting
many to Christianity.
She was arrested during the reign of Antoninus
Pius (138-161) because she refused to worship the idols. She was brought
to trial and fearlessly confessed herself a Christian. Neither
enticements of honors and material possessions, nor threats of torture
and death shook the firmness of the saint nor turned her from Christ.
She was given over to beastly tortures. They put a red-hot helmet on her
head and threw her in a cauldron filled with boiling oil and pitch. By
the power of God the holy martyr remained unharmed. When the emperor
peered into the cauldron, St Paraskeva threw a drop of the hot liquid in
his face, and he was burned. The emperor began to ask her for help, and
the holy martyr healed him. After this the emperor set her free.
Traveling from one place to another to preach
the Gospel, St Paraskeva arrived in a city where the governor was named
Asclepius. Here again they tried the saint and sentenced her to death.
They took her to an immense serpent living in a cave, so that it would
devour her. But St Paraskeva made the Sign of the Cross over the snake
and it died. Asclepius and the citizens witnessed this miracle and
believed in Christ. She was set free, and continued her preaching. In a
city where the governor was a certain Tarasius, St Paraskeva endured
fierce tortures and was beheaded in the year 140.
Many miracles took place at the saint's tomb:
the blind received sight, the lame walked, and barren women gave birth
to children. It is not only in the past that the saint performed her
miracles, but even today she helps those who call on her in faith.
