TRANSCRIPT

The Holy Great Martyr Parasceva

About the third century after the Nativity of Christ, in the city of Iconium in Asia Minor, there lived a rich yet very pious couple. They had a daughter, whom they named after a day that they especially revered - the day on which the Lord suffered on the cross. Her name was Friday, in Greek - Parasceva.

Parasceva was raised by her parents in great love for God. When her mother and father died, she resolved to devote herself completely to the Lord, and she took a vow of celibacy. 

Desiring to be a profitable servant to Him, she spread the Christian faith among the Gentiles with all her might. Her sweet voice and heartfelt words had great power. People came to the light of the true faith, believing in God with all their hearts.

But one day, Saint Parasceva was seized by wicked pagans, as a criminal confessor of Christ, and at the trial they demanded that she make foul sacrifices to the idols. The holy virgin asked the Lord for grace and strength to endure the coming torment, and furiously rejected all their offers. 

So the monsters began to brutally torment Parasceva. There was almost nothing the executioners didn't do to the virgin's body! But the saint prayed silently and endured everything.

֥When she was bleeding and wounded to the point her bones were showing, they threw her into the dungeon to die. But there an angel appeared to the virgin and healed her tormented body. But the pagan torturers did not see the divine miracle. They just began to torture and torment her with redoubled vigor. And after all these sufferings, they cut off the sufferer's head. 

From time immemorial, the Russian people have honored and loved Saint Parasceva. They consider her to be their intercessor, a protector of their fields and cattle, a healer of all spiritual and bodily ailments, and also a guardian of family well-being and happiness.

October 28 (new calendar) / November 10 (old calendar) is the feast day of the Great-Martyr Saint Parasceva.