Orthodox icon of Saint Paraskevi "Epivatine" or Paraskeva of the Balkans, Αγ. Παρασκευή Επιβατινή. Copy of a contemporary icon.
Commemorated October 14th.
NOTE: the icon will have a red border around it.
Saint Paraskevi, Parascheva was born in the village Epivat in Eastern Tracia, at the beginning of the 11th century, in a christian family. By the age of 15, she dedicated herself to the monastic life. .
Legend says that when she was a child, Paraskeva heard in a church the Lord's words: "Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Mark 8, 34). These words would determine her to give her rich clothes away to the poor and flee to Constantinople .Her parents, who did not support her decision to follow an ascetic, religious life, looked for her in various cities. Paraskeva fled to Chalcedon and afterwards lived at the church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Heraklea of Pontus. She lived an austere life, experiencing visions of the Virgin Mary. Her voyages took her to Jerusalem, wishing to spend the rest of her life there. After seeing Jerusalem, she settled in a convent in the desert near the Jordan river.
When she was 25, an angel appeared, telling her to return to her homeland. She returned to Constantinople, and then when she was 25, lived in the village of Kallikrateia in the church of the Holy Apostles. She died at the age of 27.
