The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians. (3:23-4:5)
Brethren, before faith came, we were confined under the Law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the Law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Today’s epistle reading is taken from the third and fourth chapters of Galatians. I am not going to speak on that passage today, but there is a link which I would like to highlight between these chapters and the story I will be sharing today. In Galatians chapter 4, actually in the portion of the chapter we would have read yesterday on the liturgical calendar, Paul makes a comparison between Ishmael and Isaac, turning them into an allegory of the law and of faith. He specifically looks at the mode in which they were begotten. The first, Ishmael, was begotten by Abraham and an enslaved woman Hagar, because Abraham’s wife could not conceive. But Isaac was begotten by a miracle in his barren wife Sarah’s old age. For Paul this story presents a contrast between the law and faith; between humanity seeking to fulfill God’s plan in a worldly manner, and God fulfilling his own plan in the way He sees fit. Paul then quotes this passage from Isaiah: “Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which has a husband.”
This passage from Isaiah would have been well known in Christian circles because it comes immediately after the suffering servant passages that are seen as prefiguring or prophesying Christ’s humiliation and death on the cross and they also speak to God’s mission to the entire world. I’ll read the full passage from Isaiah here: “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of she that has a husband, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”
Pay attention to the phrases here: “More are the children of the desolate than the children of she that has a husband” and “you will forget the shame of your youth and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood for your Maker is your husband.” For the non-Christian world, the way to power was always through begetting more children. Whether it was someone to inherit your wealth, someone to help in the field, or soldiers to fill your army – fertility and children meant wealth and power. The world told women to seek salvation in finding a husband, and told men to find salvation in their wife. But for Christianity, salvation was not to be found in hearth and home.
And this is a notion that you will find front and center in the life of St. Paraskeva of Rome, who we remember today. She lived in the Roman Empire during the second century, at a time when the empire was at its largest and most powerful. The Nerva-Antoinine dynasty, which began in the late first century and extended into the late second century, was in control and that particular dynasty includes such figures as Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. Outside of the early emperors like Julius Caesar and Augustus, and maybe some of the classically evil emperors like Nero or Domitian, these remain some of the most well-known emperors of all time. And this is because they ruled Rome at its height and for the most part they ruled it well.
I think it is also important to share that there was some unrest during this time. Interestingly the seed for this unrest was planted much earlier, within reign of Augustus Caesar, in Judea, when the provincial governor Pilate had put to death that trouble maker Jesus who was called by his followers the Christ. Jesus the Christ was honestly little more than a blip on the radar screen of the Roman Empire, and his crucifixion had appeared to end the problem. And really, it wasn’t a Roman problem, it was a Judean problem, a squabble between two sects of Judeans. But since the squabble had been about which leader was going to supplant the Roman emperor, Pilate had needed to deal with it. None of their leaders should be thinking about supplanting the Roman emperor. Best to put a quick end to the whole thing.
But then a generation later, there began to pop up groups of Christians in cities all over the empire. This un-nerved the Romans a bit. These Christians were no longer just Judeans, but many others had joined them, including some Roman citizens. They still referred to Jesus as the Messiah or the Christ, but they had added to this Lord and Savior and even God. To Romans, words like these are reserved for the emperor and the imperial line, and they are certainly not for agitators and dissidents. These Christians had come on the scene with sedition in Judea and now continued in their treachery by refusing to offer prayers and burn incense before the image of the emperor. Even though they did not participate in the Jewish Revolt, they were associated with it, and besides their behavior was clearly unpatriotic.
The Romans threw all kinds of slurs at the Christians, including calling them atheists and cannibals and incestuous. The first was because of their refusal to recognize the Roman pantheon of gods, which included the emperor. The second was a slightly absurd and possibly intentional misunderstanding of the language surrounding the Eucharist. And while the third slander fell into that same category, a misunderstanding of Christian language where they recognized one another as brother and sister even as they married amongst themselves. But this last slur was exacerbated by the fact that Christians did not follow Roman social norms, often allowed master to sit at table with slave, men and women to speak with one another, and wives – who were largely considered the property of their husbands –to participate in their prayers without their husbands. All of this left a bad taste in the mouth of the Romans. It was clear something odd was going on. And this unease left Christians open to much scapegoating, with Nero and Domitian leading some of the more spectacular persecutions. This was all in the first century of the Christian era.
But now we are in the second century and Christianity appears to be here to stay. It remains unpopular, even illegal, but it can no longer be disregarded. By some historical miracle we have a lengthy collection of letters from a provincial governor name Pliny the Younger to the Emperor Trajan. It is really an amazing collection and offers more insight into the day-to-day work of governing the Roman Empire than is available for almost any other period. There are literally letters about everything from the building of aqueducts to the redirecting of sewers. And then there is one very famous letter where Pliny is just very confused about what to do with the Christians.
His letter is a little humorous, if it is at all proper to find humor in such things. Pliny is like, “I had some Christians turned into me and when they refused to offer incense to your image I killed them like I was supposed to. And then some more were brought in. These recanted and worshiped your image, so I let them go. And then there were more brought in, and I was like, ‘How many of these Christians are there?’ So I did some investigating, arrested a couple of the women that appeared to be officiating in their services, and tortured them until they told me what they were up to. They told me everything about their prayer services and their common meals and that crazy superstition about Jesus the Christ, but other than that, I couldn’t really find any actual crime.” He adds the detail here that ever since he had started arresting and killing these Christians, there has been a lot more traffic in the pagan temples. You think? “But the real trouble is that these Christians appear to be everywhere, in the city and in the country side, and so before I go about killing so many that live my province, I thought I should check in with you.”
Trajan replies that if a Christian is brought in to you and refuses to renounce his faith, then of course you need to kill them. But you are also right not to trouble yourself with hunting them down and arresting all of them. They’re just not worth the trouble. In this, Trajan instituted a kind of a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy on Christians.
And that’s the second century Roman Empire. Christianity has gone from a threat to power that must be stamped out, to a pesky sect that is too big to kill but we are hoping it goes away if we just ignore it. There are no great persecutions of Christians in the second century like those of Nero and Domitian in the first century or like that of Decius in the third century. There is one brief persecution that comes up under Marcus Aurelius that will have some bearing on our story, but overall Christians were allowed to exist. I mean, of course you should kill them, if someone turns them in. But we can’t kill them all. And really, they don’t seem to be hurting anyone.
This is the context into which St. Paraskeva was born. Paraskeva is born right in the heart of this great empire, right in Rome itself. And her parents are remembered as pious Christians. They have not been able to have children and late in life, after much prayer, are gifted an only daughter. I think it is worth here saying just a little about her name Paraskeva.
The first thing to know is that in many languages St. Paraskeva is known as St. Friday, because Paraskeva is the Greek word for Friday. Paraskeva is actually the Greek word for preparation, but that is the word they use for Friday because the Christians of Paraskeva’s day referred to Friday as the day of Preparation, which was followed by Sabbat or the Sabbath, and then Kyriaki or the Lord’s Day. So Paraskeva, who was indeed born on the day of preparation, is named after that day and in honor of the death of the Friday crucifixion of our Lord and Savior.
Why do I think it is important to know that she is St. Friday? Well, because our days have meanings. And while we Christians remember the Lord’s passion on Friday – this is why we fast on nearly every Friday – the Greco-Roman world remembered something else on Friday. In Rome, Friday was called Dies Veneris or the Day of Venus. Venus was the God of love and fertility and prosperity. In fact, we can still find this meaning in our own word Friday, which comes from the Germanic and Norse mythology as Freyja’s Day or Frigg’s Day. Freyja in particular was used on Friday because she fulfilled a role similar to Venus in Roman pantheon, including governance of the realm of romance, beauty, wealth, and fertility. So in the Christian story of St. Paraskeva or St. Friday, I think we should not be surprised to see some Christian commentary on non-Christian notions of love, fertility, and prosperity.
So with that in mind, let us return to our barren couple who have miraculously born a child in their old age. See already here there is an echo of the Abraham and Sarah story. Think of Paul and Isaiah’s words, “Rejoice O Barren One, for your children are more that she who has a husband.” It is not marriage and a husband that provide children, it is the Lord.
This couple doted on their daughter and being of some means they gave her the best education they could afford. This included teaching in philosophy and in the Scriptures. As she grew into a beautiful young woman, many local families wanted to bring this educated and wealthy Paraskeva into their households through marriage to their sons. But Paraskeva had higher goals for her life than being a wife and her parents supported her in this choice, rejecting all of these suitors. Again, hear the words of Isaiah, “For your Maker will be your Husband.” We see here that Paraskeva is not seeking security in a traditional family life, but instead seeking a Christian life of sacrifice and service. We see this beautiful Venus living in the heart of Rome rejecting the pagan path to security and instead choosing the much narrower Christian path.
And then, at age 20, we are told that Paraskeva’s aged parents die. When this happens, rather than seeking refuge in one of those many households who would have surely still accepted her, Paraskeva sells most of her property and gives it to the poor, and with the remainder she opens a commune where single women can live together, pray, and serve those in need. Just as Christians held Jesus Christ to be their Lord and would worship no other, so too did Paraskeva feel herself to be the bride of Christ and would accept no other.
In this place she served for ten years. And then, at the age of 30, the age our Lord was when he began his ministry, Paraskeva left Rome and began to travel across the empire as a missionary. Now remember the world in which she lived. It was fine to be a Christian in second century Rome, as long as you kept it to yourself. Even starting a commune in the heart of Rome where women worked with the poor appears to have been taken in stride. I mean, that’s just crazy kind of thing Christians do. It’s ridiculous, but whatever. Let them do it if they want. But when Paraskeva chose to go out into the world preaching the Gospel, that was something completely different. That was just asking for it. And indeed it was only a matter of time before somebody turned her over to the Emperor Antoninus Pius.
We are told that Antoninus was taken by Paraskeva’s beauty and intelligence and tried first to tempt her with an offer to become empress and rule at his side. But it was a short courtship, because when she refused, he instead chose torture her. Antoninus’ final torture was to put Paraskeva into a boiling cauldron of water. Like the three youth in the fiery furnace, the Lord protected his bride. Infuriated that Paraskeva was not burning, the emperor approached the cauldron. In some versions he is blinded by the steam, but in one version that I particularly liked it says that Paraskeva splashed some of the boiling water on him. “You don’t think this is hot? Here, why don’t you try some?” In either case, the emperor is blinded, pleas for help, and then at Paraskeva’s word he is healed. At this miracle, the emperor allows Paraskeva to go free.
Now free, Paraskeva does not retreat to her commune, but returns to her preaching and travels. As she preaches, Antoninus dies and a great plague begins to trouble the land. The new Emperor Marcus Aurelius decides to use an old trick and blame the Christians and their impiety. Paraskeva is again arrested by a regional governor and again released when the Lord protects her, this time from a pit of snakes. And then at last a third governor arrests her, and after a short time gives up on the torture and instead has her beheaded.
Paraskeva died the faithful bride of Christ in the year 140 and at her gravesite the lame have been made to walk, the blind have been made to see, and barren women have been made fertile. Even in the tomb this woman who had rejected worldly love and wealth has continued to give of her great bounty. “Rejoice, O barren one, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of she that has a husband. Forget the shame of thy youth, for your Maker is your husband.” The world teaches us that fulfillment and even salvation is to be found in romantic love, in a family and children, in a wife or a husband, in all that ancient Venus promised, but this is not the teaching of the Church. To God, it does not matter if you are married or single, true fertility, spiritual fertility, is found in service and in sacrifice and in each of our personal vocations. This is the lesson we should all take away from the life of St. Paraskeva. May St. Paraskeva pray to God for us as each of us strive to live the life our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ has granted us.
Amen.