Lydia: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Lydia was a merchant from Thyatira who dealt in purple cloth, the costly dyed fabric of kings and the wealthy, and lived at Philippi in Macedonia. Though born outside Israel, she worshipped the God of Israel. When the Apostle Paul was at Troas, he saw in a vision a man of Macedonia asking him to come over and help them, and he sailed with Silas, Timothy and Luke to Philippi. On the Sabbath they went out to a place of prayer by the river and spoke to the women gathered there. Lydia listened eagerly, and the Lord opened her heart to receive what Paul said. She and her whole household were baptized in the river, which the Greek tradition calls the Zygaktos. At once she begged the apostles to stay in her house, and her home became a gathering place for the first Christians of Philippi. The synaxarion says she served the Lord with good works and ended her life in an apostolic manner. The Orthodox Church honours her as Equal to the Apostles, and a baptistery has been built at the place of her baptism. The Church of Constantinople glorified her in 1972. Her feast is 20 May (2 June on the Old Calendar); in Slavic usage she is also remembered on 23 March. The faithful look to her as a model of a heart opened by the Lord, of a household that came to Christ together, and of generous hospitality to those who preach the Gospel.

What the faithful pray for

• a heart opened by the Lord to hear His word
• households that come to Christ together
• hospitality to the Church and its preachers
• the newly baptized