The holy icon of Saint Paraskevi, which has resided in the village of Kattavia on Rhodes, Greece or the last 120 years, traveled more than 5,000 miles recently, all the way to Baltimore, Maryland.
Faithful from the greater Baltimore area, as well as Maria Stanas, the president of the Kattavian Society in Baltimore, made sure that the priceless icon would come to the US so that people who remember it from their childhoods on Rhodes, could see it and pray in front of it once again.
The icon, made completely of silver which was donated long ago by the residents of the village of Kattavia, has never before left its village on Rhodes.
Saint Paraskevi (or Paraskeua) of Rome, as she is known, was an early Christian martyr who lived in the 2nd century AD.
St. Paraskevi, whose feast day is on July 26, is believed to be the patron saint of the blind. She is widely celebrated and honored in all Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches, in contrast to Western churches, which do not venerate her.
The Orthodox Christian icon will remain in the church of Saint Demetrios in Baltimore throughout the weekend of September 28-29.
After that, the icon will be taken to a total of eleven different churches in six American states by Father Zacharias Mavroudis, who will accompany the icon at all times throughout its American journey.
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