The church of Agia Paraskevi, on 6 Dioskouron Street, is built in the courtyard of an old mansion, on the way to the Acropolis. The church belongs to the Greek Old Calendarists, a religious group which is not in communion with the official Greek church. The church saves religious icons and ceremonial items from the similar church of Agios Athanassios of Vlassarou, which was demolished.
Greek Old Calendarists, also Genuine Orthodox Christiansare groups of Old Calendarist Orthodox Christians that remained committed to the traditional Orthodox practice and are not in communion with most of the other Orthodox churches such as the Orthodox Church of Greece or the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The split began with a disagreement over the abandonment of the traditional church calendar (also called the Julian calendar) in preference to the adoption of the Revised Julian calendar which is similar to the papal Gregorian calendarand over other liturgical reforms that were introduced.
The church of Agia Paraskevi, on Dioskouron Street, Plaka.
The holy and glorious Virgin-MartyrAgiaParaskevi, known as the Parthenomartyr, was was born near Rome during the reign of Hadrian (117-138 AD). She obtained an excellent education from both secular and Scriptural instructors and was very knowledgeable in philosophy. She was arrested during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) under the penalty of refusing to worship idols and adhering to the state pagan religion. After enduring many tortures, she was eventually released by the emperor, continuing to profess Christ. She was eventually tortured and beheaded by the Roman governor Tarasius in the year 180.