Thanks, and further question: Paraskeva

[Francoise Rosset]

Thank you to all the colleagues who replied so promptly to my question 
about the church. It does exist: Nikolai v Khamovnikakh (not 
Mozhaisk), who served as patron to weavers (not tanners).

I have another question, this one about St. Paraskeva.

Last week-end we took our students to the Museum of Russian Icons in 
Clinton, Mass. The museum houses its own private collection and is 
currently hosting a small but impressive exhibit of Icons from the 
Andrei Rublev museum in Moscow.

Among others, they had a gorgeous icon of St Paraskeva, Novgorod, last 
quarter of the 16th century. It is large-ish, 3-4 feet or so by 3. It 
is a pretty standard depiction, but I could not find it in Google 
images. She is depicted full front, to the waist. She appears to be 
looking past the viewer, not at her/him. No angels or crowns, just the 
nimbus. Her cloak, which also covers her head, is bright red (for 
martyrdom?). The background is a deep bluish green. She holds an 
Eastern cross in her right hand and in the left a scroll, whose words 
the Museum's book identifies as the Nicene creed. So, pretty standard 
iconography, except for the background color.

My question is about the "original" saint.
I've read about a St Paraskeva, a Roman martyr of Greek heritage, she 
of the boiling oil. There's also the later Balkan ascetic St 
Paraskeva, or Paraskeva-Petka (like the Russian Paraskeva-Piatnitsa), 
whose images sometimes carry a _Western_ cross. And another Roman-area 
martyr, "a third-century martyr from Iconium, a favorite of Russians, 
who consider her the patron saint of traders and guardian of family 
happiness." [Orthodox America]

Does anyone know more about this? Clearly the biographies refer to 
three different women, assuming they existed in history. Is the one 
venerated in Russia a conflation of them, or is she known to be one as 
opposed to the other, and does it matter? Linda Ivanits suggests that 
the Russian version is a composite and informed by older pagan cults; 
her day is Oct 28, which corresponds to neither of the first two, the 
more famous ones.

I'm curious whether any one out there has further information, or 
thoughts, about the original saint or the iconography.

Finally, if you're not familiar with this "little" local museum, 
http://www.museumofrussianicons.org/

Thanks,
-FR


Francoise Rosset, Associate Professor
Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
Coordinator, German and Russian
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts 02766
Office: (508) 285-3696
FAX:   (508) 286-3640

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