Name day of everyone named Paraskeva, Petko, Petyo, Petka, Petkana, Penka, Pencho.
St. Paraskeva (called Petka) is one of the most loved Bulgarian Saints. She is also worshiped in many other Christian countries as a saint.
She was born in the 11th century in the city of Epivat, located between Silivria and Constantinople. Her parents were very religious people and raised their children to be pious.After her parents died, St. Petka strictly devoted herself to the monastic life, and with fasting and prayer, she committed her life to God. After five years of fasting and prayer, she went to the Holy Land (Palestine) to live in the desert of Jordan. In her old age, she returned to Constantinople to the Church of Holy Theotokosin Blaherna to venerate the miraculous icon of the Mother of God.Two centuries after her death (1238 A.D.), the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Assen decided to move St. Petka's relics from her native Epivat, which then was under the Crusader's control, to Turnovo, the capital of Bulgaria.
After the fall of Bulgaria under the rle of the Ottoman Turks, the relics of St. Petka were moved again - this time to the Bulgarian town of Vidin (located on the river Danube).
In 1396, when the Turks conquered this area too, the holy relics were moved away again, finally arriving in Constantinople. Her remains were received there with great respect and solemnity and the Sultan brought them to his own castle. Numerous miracles are believed to have occurred there, which caused the holy Mother Petka-Paraskeva to be worshipped by the Muslims as well.
In 1641, with permission from Constantinople's Patriarch Partenije I, the pious Moldavian ruler Vasilije Lupul brought St. Petka's remains to Moldavia's capital, Jash, where on 14/27 October they were placed in the church of the Three Holy Hierarchs. The Day of St Petka has been celbrated ever since on that same day.
St. Petka's holy relics continue to glorify the Lord with wonders and miracles.
Info based on www.st-george-church.org