St Pеtkа

St Petka was of the Slavic origin. She was born in Epibatos, a small town in the European part of Turkey. She had a brother Eftimie who became a bishop and she took her monastic vows in Constantinople and then, quite oddly for a woman, she went to the Jordan desert. In prayer and loneliness, she many years there, but at the end of her life she returned to her hometown, where she lived and died anonymously. It was in the 11th century. After a vision appearing in a dream of a man, her uncorrupted relics were discovered, venerated ever since.


The name Pеtkа is a translation of a Greek name Pаrаskеvi (Friday).


St Pеtkа is particularly venerated in Serbia. The Church celebrates her day on the 14th /27thOctober.


St Pеtkа is directly connected with Belgrade. Her holy relics, which were through centuries translated to Constantinople, then to Tirnovo, the capital of Bulgaria, princess Milica managed to obtain appealing to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid, and brought them to Belgrade. Today, St Petka relics are in Iasi, Romania, and in Belgrade there is the St petka Chapel with a medicinal water spring in it.