"Receive Her In The Lord:" The Story of Lydia the Hostess

St. Lydia Purpuraria was a first-century businesswoman, the hostess of a house church, and the first recorded European convert to Christianity. Lydia was a merchant dealing in expensive purple cloth, who first encountered Christianity when Paul came to preach at the city of Philippi, in the Roman region of Macedonia, where Lydia resided. Upon entering the city, Paul met and began praying with a group of women, including Lydia. “When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us into her home,” writes Paul in Acts of the Apostles 16:15, “‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘Come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.” (Acts 16:15) After publicly converting and opening her home to Paul and his companions, she continued to keep there a house church, which was instrumental in the establishment of the first Christian community in all of Europe. (Gallick)

As an independent businesswoman, it is likely that Lydia herself was the sole celebrant of her house church, a role that she was not required to share with her husband or any other male figure in her life. Under the Roman Emperor Augustine, a married woman had the option of remaining a legal member of her birth family and therefore in possession and control of her own inheritance, and eligible to be in control of her own finances if she had had more than three children. (Cotter) As a married businesswoman in this time period, it is likely that Lydia would have had this privilege, allowing her to make financial choices entirely independently, such as becoming Paul’s benefactor and establishing the first house church of Philippi. 

While the term “house church” is quite common in theological and even archaeological discourse surrounding the first few centuries of Christianity, the specific function that these spaces served is often misunderstood. In many cases, the houses of early Christians were the only spaces in which they could openly discuss their faith. Depending on the time period, this could have been due to widespread persecution, local policy, or condemnation of Christianity as political propaganda by the synagogues. (Filson) Therefore, house churches were not only spaces of worship, but of Scriptural discussion, faith-sharing, and evangelical preaching as well. As a woman and as a Christian convert in a region unfamiliar with and largely wary of Christian teaching, Lydia’s choice to host Paul and his companions in her home would have constituted a considerable risk.

Although there is not a lot of factual information about Lydia’s life, her story is marked by fearless hospitality, courageous leadership, and remarkable personal autonomy. Her eager acceptance of Paul’s teaching, an ideology foreign to her entire geographic region, helped establish the Good News not just as a local tradition, but as a global faith community.