Saint of the Day: St. Lydia

Disciple of Saint Paul (First Century)

Her life

+ According to the Acts of the Apostles (16:13ff), Lydia was merchant of purple cloth in Philippi. When Saint Paul visited that city sometime around the year 55, he baptized Lydia and her household.

+ The baptism is celebrated as the first recorded conversion to Christianity in Europe.

+ A woman of wealth and influence, Lydia is remembered for the hospitality she offered to Paul, Luke and Silas.

+ Saint Lydia was added to the Church’s official list of saints, The Roman Martyrology, at the time of the Council of Trent.

For prayer and reflection

“In this vast domain of service, the Church's two-thousand-year history, for all its historical conditioning, has truly experienced the ‘genius of woman’; from the heart of the Church there have emerged women of the highest caliber who have left an impressive and beneficial mark in history.”—Pope Saint John Paul II, Letter to Women

Spiritual bonus

On August 3 we remember Blessed Francisco Bandres Sanchez. A Salesian priest, musician and music teacher in Barcelona, he used the school’s resources to send away as many students and members of his Salesian community as possible when the anti-Catholic violence of the Spanish Civil War erupted. Blessed Francisco was tortured to death for the “crime” of being a priest and running a Catholic school on August 3, 1936. He was beatified with other martyrs of the Spanish Civil War in 2001.

Prayer

O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of blessed Lydia, grant, we pray, that we, who are called to honor her, may also follow her example of holy living. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For a Holy Woman)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.