Lydia of Thyatira

The Acts of the Apostles present her as a dealer in purple from Thyatira in Asia Minor, settled at Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia. She was one of those gentiles whom Judaism attracted without their fully joining it — the text calls her a worshipper of God. On a sabbath day Paul and his companions, newly arrived in Europe, found a place of prayer outside the walls by a river; Lydia listened, and was baptised with her whole household. She is thus the first convert of the European continent. She then insisted on receiving the apostles into her house, which became the first foothold of the mission in the West; it is there that Paul and Silas returned after their imprisonment. The purple she traded was a luxury dye, which implies an independent woman of means — a rare detail in the New Testament. She is commemorated on 3 August.