To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
“Born to a family of serfs in 1795 in the village of Nikolskoye, Tambov, and originally christened Irina Ivanovna, Paraskeva was given in marriage to a man named Feodor when she was seventeen years old. By all accounts she was a dutiful wife with a meek bearing who was dedicated to her husband and to prayer. She did not participate in community activities beyond church, but she was much admired, particularly by her parents-in-law.
Irina and Feodor, were not blessed with children. After fifteen years of serving their Russian masters as serfs, Feodor and Irina were sold to a German family named Schmidt. Five years after that, however, Feodor contracted tuberculosis and died. The Schmidts initially tried to convince Irina to remarry, but she adamantly refused.
Sometime later, the Schmidts found that two valuable paintings were missing from their household, and one of the servant women accused Irina of being the thief. The police arrested her and proceeded to beat her severely, but Irina consistently pleaded innocence…
She ran away and went to Kyiv on a pilgrimage. During the pilgrimage, she knew she was being called to devote herself entirely to Christ, and after having been unfairly punished herself, she felt that she could identify more with Christ’s own sufferings at the hands of evil accusers…
For running away, the Schmidts unceremoniously threw her out into the street with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. This action pleased Irina, since during her last visit to Kyiv she had received tonsure with the name Paraskeva, and she saw her expulsion as a sign that God was calling her to the difficult path of a fool for Christ.
Paraskeva kept a strict rule of prayer, always rising at midnight to pray and insisting that anyone living with her do the same. She also would spend much of her time knitting socks or spinning thread, reciting the Jesus Prayer endlessly as she worked.
When a visitor once asked her if she might join Paraskeva at the monastery, she replied, “Well, why not? Come to us in Sarov, we’ll collect mushrooms and knit stockings” – meaning by this that they would to prostrations and say the Jesus Prayer together.”
Paraskeva of Diveyevo (1795-1915 in Holy Fools: The Lives of Twenty Fools for Christ by Oswin Craton (Chesterton: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2024) 97-101.
The Jesus Prayer goes like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The origin of calling it the Jesus Prayer goes back for centuries with monks in monasteries. It finds biblical roots in today’s Scripture.
From Paraskeva, we learn many things. Though she had an upbringing filled with slavery, death, and false accusations, she saw them not as reasons to become hard and bitter but ways to identify with Jesus.
And she encouraged everyone she knew to come before him humbly with her in prayer to find mercy, grace, and help in time of need. This seems to be a fitting post as I depart John’s place today.
It was John who changed my life 2.5 years ago with the Surrender Novena from Dolindo Ruotolo. “Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!” He encouraged me to pray it ten times a day. It’s changed my life and thousands of others.
I can see how visits with Paraskeva would transform the lives of her guests and strict rules of prayer do not make us weird. They make us wise. They do not waste our time. They teach us how not to waste our life.