Tomorrow, the Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates the day of the Venerable Mother Paraskeva - St. Petka, a saint who helped the sick and the poor.

The cult of St. Paraskevi has been nurtured for centuries in Southeast Europe, and is respected by some non-Christian peoples in the East. Believers pray to her for help and salvation from diseases and other life troubles.

She came from a wealthy and pious family. She had a brother, whose name was Jevtimije, and who became a monk at a very young age, and later became the bishop of Madita (989 - 996). Even as a little girl, when she went to church with her mother, she was very pious. After the death of her parents, eager for an ascetic life, she left her parents' home and went to Constantinople, where she became a monk in the Church of St. Sophia, and then went to the Jordan Desert.

Next to the temples of St. Paraskevi, there are often springs of healing water that people take, believing that it will heal their wounds and protect them from diseases. Paraskevi was born in Epivat, near the city of Kalikratia in Asia Minor, in the late 10th or early 11th century.

According to tradition, St. Paraskevi spent many years in the desert, in fasting and prayer and a solitary life. Tradition says that an angel appeared to her in a dream and sent her to her homeland to spread the faith of Christ. That is why Holy Paraskevi is represented on the icons in monastic clothes, with a cross in his hand.

At her grave, legend has it, miracles happened. In 1238, according to some, the Bulgarian Tsar Jovan Asen abducted, according to others, he simply transferred the relics of Saint Paraskevi to his capital city of Trnovo. When the Turks conquered Bulgaria, the relics were transferred, by order of Sultan Bayezid, to the city of Iasi.

Monastery of St. Paraskevi at Domiros

According to popular belief, the evening before tomorrow's holiday of Saint Paraskevi has a special meaning. After dinner you usually go to sleep.

It is obligatory to cross oneself three times and say the prayer: "Help God, Saint Paraskevi and Holy Sunday, forgive us if we have done something wrong; help me and save me, God, from someone else's unseen misery; save me from evil thoughts; help me tomorrow, God forbid; health, good to sleep, bad not to shoot, but immortelle and basil; may God give health, happiness and progress and let us look forward to tomorrow healthy and alive! "

Church Of Saint Paraskevi, Kalemegdan, Belgrade

This is how only the host usually prayed, and women and children were crucified only three times. He sleeps after prayer. The head always turns to the east during sleep, because that is how it rolls. One hand is placed under the head and the other is stretched. They always lie on the right side, because that's how it rolls. Where there are children, the room is burned with incense, so that the children would not be afraid in their sleep.

In 1396, Princess Milica managed to pray for the saint's relics and bury them in the church of Ružica, on Kalemegdan, where every year a column of women waits in line for miraculous water. Sultan Suleiman the Second transferred the relics of St. Paraskevi in 1521 to Constantinople. Finally, in 1641, the Patriarch of Constantinople Parthenius presented the relics to the Moldavian prince Vasilije Lupula, who transferred them to Iasi and laid them in the Church of the Holy Three Hierarchs, where they are today.

Folk beliefs and customs

According to folk customs, women should not knead, cook, sew, wash clothes or do any work in the house in order not to incur the wrath of the saint and not to make their hands tingle during the year.

On Saint Paraskevi, great miracles happened. Many sick people have recovered to this day. That is why people with health problems are waiting for this holiday, believing that the saint will help them.

Miraculous spring of St. Paraskeva.

Legend has it that the source was created as an expression of gratitude to the father, for the miraculous healing of his sick daughter. Once upon a time, on this route, he led the road from Ostružnica to Belgrade.

A rich and respectable merchant from Ostružnica often took his daughter, blind from birth, to the doctor in the capital. On one of these trips, they stopped by the spring to refresh themselves, wash themselves and drink some cold spring water. The next morning, after waking up crying, the girl exclaimed to see the light. That night, in a dream, Saint Paraskevi appeared to the merchant. As a sign of gratitude, a rich merchant arranged a spring and placed a marble icon of Saint Paraskevi

According to the legend, the miraculous sources of Saint Paraskevi were created during the transfer of her holy relics, from Constantinople, through Serbia, further on the way to Romania to the city of Iasi.

In all the places where the procession stopped to spend the night, a miraculous spring with holy and healing water was created.