Today, the Orthodox Church commemorates the memory of Lydia, a Greek woman mentioned in the New Testament who is thought to be the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe.
The Baptism of Lydia the Greek
Kavala, a city in northern Greece, is mentioned in the sacred book of the Acts of the Apostles, one of the books of the New Testament. Therein, the Apostle and Evangelist Luke describes what took place in the ancient city of Philippi when the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, set foot for the first time on Greek and European soil to proliferate the new religion and preach the message of the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul (along with his companions Timothy, Silas, and Luke) disembarked at the ancient port of Neapolis (modern-day Kavala) and continued down the Egnatia road before reaching the city of Philippi. It was there that he preached the message of the Gospel and also baptized Lydia, the first Greek and European woman to convert to Christianity.
Lydia, from Thyatira in Asia Minor, was proclaimed a saint much later with the Church giving her the title of apostle. According to the scriptures, she and the rest of her family were baptized by Paul on the banks of the Zygaki River, which was outside the walls of the city of Philippi.
In this area in the 1970s, only a few meters from the archaeological site of Philippi, the late Metropolitan Alexander of Philippi Neapolis and Thassos began construction of a monumental church, a baptistery, which, over time, was transformed into a worship center that has been visited by thousands of Christians of all denominations.
The high status of the baptistery of Agia Lydia is largely due to the late Metropolitan Prokopios of Philippi Neapolis and Thassos, who, over the course of forty years, managed to establish it as a holy site with a global dimension, as is the teaching in Christianity. He decorated the interior of the church with elaborate mosaics. These were all creations of the craftsman Vlasis Tsotsoni.
There is a mosaic representation of the baptism of Jesus in the inner dome of the church as well as a mosaic floor in the narthex.
This morning, following the solemn Divine Liturgy conducted in the presence of a large group of people in the baptistery of Agia Lydia, the Metropolitan of Philippi Neapolis and Thassos celebrated the baptism of four adults who were converting to Christianity.
Although the Greek woman, Lydia, is commonly known as “St Lydia,” or sometimes “The Woman of Purple,” she is also referred to as Lydia of Thyatira, Purpuraria, and Lydia of Philippi. The term Purpuraria comes from the Latin word for purple and relates to her connection with purple dye.
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