St. Paraskevi of Iași

Paraskevi, called Petka by the Slavs, was born in Epivatos in Thrace. As a girl she gave her fine clothes to the poor, and she later lived as a hermit in the desert near the Jordan. Near the end of her life an angel sent her home, where she reposed in obscurity. Her incorrupt relics were later discovered, and they travelled from Tarnovo to Belgrade and Constantinople before Prince Vasile Lupu brought them to Iași in 1641. Every October hundreds of thousands of pilgrims queue for days to venerate them.

• Feast: October 14 (New Calendar)
• Lived: 11th century
• Place: Iași
• Relics today: Metropolitan Cathedral, Iași