Lydia

Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, living in Philippi. She was already a worshiper of God when Paul and his companions came to the riverside where she and other women gathered to pray. As she listened to Paul speak, 'the Lord opened her heart' to receive his message. She and her entire household were baptized, making her the first recorded convert to Christianity in Europe. She then opened her home to Paul and his companions, insisting, 'If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there.' Her home likely became the meeting place for the church at Philippi — the congregation to whom Paul later wrote one of his most joyful letters. Lydia shows us a woman of influence, faith, and radical hospitality.