St. Paraskeva, whose name means Friday in Greek, was a virgin-martyr during Diocletian's reign. She was a "woman's saint". During the year peasants venerated 12 personified "Fridays" by fasting and abstaining from tasks such as spinning, house cleaning, and washing linen. An "Instruction" put out about the "Fridays" specified that peasants would receive rewards such as protection from sudden death, murder, drowning, grievous sin, and extreme poverty for keeping the 12 "Fridays." Peasants also looked to her for successful crops and prayed to her in times of drought, poor harvests, destructive rains and locusts. http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?language=eng&pageID=2007