On Saturday evening I traveled with Fr. Greg to Saint Paraskeva Church in Wakefield, Massachusetts for a wonderful event. The parish in Wakefield, the one I was assigned too as a seminarian by the way, was the recipient of relics of Our Holy Mother Paraskeva. What an amazing night to be in the presence of Saintly Relics.
A little word about the relics. When one thinks of relics one thinks of bones or other such things but in this case it was robe that is laid upon the Holy Relics. Her relics lie in the The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Iasi, (pronounced Yash) Romania. Iasi is located in the Northern part of the country. It seems that the request for her relics has really ramped up so they ave had to put some restrictions on the distribution. At the present time her relics are being sent to churches dedicated to her. Once that has been completed it will be opened up to a larger audience.
The Vespers service was amazing. Presided over by His Eminence Archbishop Nicolae and served by no less than 9 priests from all over New England. Fr. Nicolae Simion, the parish priest, was beaming like a proud father as the relics were carried in procession to the “tomb” that they would be placed in for veneration by the faithful. Again it was amazing to be in the presence of such holy things. I can only imagine how Moses felt approaching the burning bush.
His Eminence spoke of the holiness of the saint and reminded the faithful that we need to continue that holiness each Sunday during the Divine Liturgy. A great lead in to the Gospel passage for yesterday. (more on that in another post)
On the Romanian Calendar St. Paraskeva’s feast day is October 14th and on the Greek calendar her feast day is July 26th. That will need some research to determine the difference in the day.
Here is the Wikipedia Article about her life.
Another version can be found here.
And yet another here.
