Saint Parascheva from Epibatos, also known in Bulgarian as Saint Petka of Tarnovo or Saint Petka of Bulgaria, is one of the most venerated and best loved female saints in the Orthodox world. Over a period of more than five centuries, her miraculous relics were several times translated from one Balkan country to another, making all Balkan nations (Bulgarians, Serbians, Romanians, or Greeks), call her “their own” saint.

Every year, on October 14, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church marks the feast of Saint Petka (or also known in Bulgarian as Sveta Parascheva).

Saint Petka lived in the 11th century in the region of Epibatos, on the shore of the Sea of Marmara, in Byzantine Thrace. She was born into a wealthy, noble and pious family of Bulgarian Christians. She had an elder brother, Methodius, who chose monastic life and was later canonized as a saint. Following his example, young Parascheva was a regular visitor to the temple of Christ. She was only 10 years old when she heard the Lord’s voice in the church and decided to devote her life to faith. She used to give her rich clothes to beggars in the street, and when her parents passed away, she gave out all her possessions to the poor. She left her home in Epibatos and spent five years living an austere life of constant prayer and devotion near the isolated church of the Intersession of the Theotokos in Heraclea Pontica (an ancient city on the coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor). After this period, she went to Palestine to visit the Holy Land and bow in front of Jesus’ tomb. She settled to live in the Jordanian Desert following the example of the famous Saint Maria of Egypt and spent years in hermitage. There, she had a vision in which God appeared and told her to return to her homelands. She returned to Epibatos and settled to live as a stranger near the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Two years later, she passed away at the age of 27 while praying to God. Since she had no living relatives, compassionate Christians buried her outside the town walls as a stranger. For years on end, her grave was left to oblivion until, one day, locals decided to bury a sinner in the same ground. While digging the grave, they came across the incorruptible body of the saint but still buried the body of the sinner next to hers. On the very same night, Saint Petka appeared as a vision to a monk and asked him to unearth her relics from the grave. On the next day, her relics were dug out and interred near the Church of the Holy Apostles in Kalikratia. Suddenly, miracles began to happen near the holy relics of Saint Petka. Many people were healed: blind people regained their lost vision, crippled people started walking again, and people with fatal diseases were miraculously cured. Thus, the wonders performed by Saint Petka became known all over Byzantine Thrace. In the 12th century, a monk named Basil wrote the story of Saint Petka’s life at the order of Patriarch Nicholas Muzalon of Constantinople.

After the victorious battle at Klokotnitza in 1230, the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Assen translated the holy relics of Saint Petka to the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, Tarnovo. At the same time, a Bulgarian version of her life was written as well as the story describing the translation of her relics to Tarnovo. She was publicly revered as the patroness of the town and of the entire Bulgarian kingdom. A testimony to this fact is the agreement signed between Tsar Ivan Alexander and the Venetian Republic, in which the Bulgarian Tsar makes a vow in the name of God, the Theotokos, the Holy Cross, and the “holy Saint Paraskeva of Tarnovo”. Several years later, in 1395, the relics of the saint were translated to Vidin (the last surviving fortress during the Ottoman invasion in Bulgaria) at the request of Tsar Konstantin II Asen, son of Ivan Stratzimir.

After Bulgaria collapsed under the Ottoman invasion in the late 14th century, the Turksih Sultan Bayazid gave the relics as a gift to the Serbian Prince Stefan Lazarevic in 1397. After Serbia was also conquered by the Ottoman Empire, the relics were transferred to Constantinople in 1521.

In 1641, with the blessing of Ecumenical Patriarch Partenius, the relics were transferred to the newly built Church of the Three Hierarchs (Trei Ierarchi) in the town of Iaşi, the capital of Moldova at that time. The church was erected during the rule of King Vasile Lupu and was sanctified by the Moldovan Bishop Varlaam. The relics were stored in this church until a big fire broke out in which they were miraculously saved intact. On December 27, 1888, with the blessing of Bishop Joseph, the relics of Saint Petka were translated to the new Metropolitan Cathedral in the town of Iaşi, in present-day northeastern Romania. They are still kept there, turning the church and the town into one of Romania’s main pilgrimage site.

Although the relics of Saint Petka remained on Romanian territory, she is still the most popular female saint in Bulgaria. For this reason, many churches and monasteries in Bulgaria bear her name and her feast day is widely celebrated across the country on October 14 each year.

Translated by: Rossitsa Petcova