other · 50 · Philippi
There was no synagogue at Philippi — it was a Roman colony and a veterans' town — so on the sabbath they went outside the gate to the river, where they supposed there was a place of prayer, and sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered. One of them was Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira and a worshipper of God, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said. She and her household were baptised, and then she argued them into staying with her: if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. Luke's verb is that she prevailed upon them. Her house is where Paul and Silas go when they come out of the jail, and it is the beginning of the church that later sends Paul money when no other church does — the one he tells, in the warmest of the letters, that he thanks God in all his remembrance of them.
To find a place of prayer in a Roman colony with no synagogue.
The first named convert in Europe, and a house that becomes the Philippian church.