LYDIA
First in Europe to Accept Gospel.
In the group that listened to the wonderful message was "a certain woman named Lydia," who lived in Thyatira, but who was then in Philippi attending to her business connected with the dyeing trade. She sold purple dyes used by the rich and the nobility. The Lord gave her a testimony of the truth as Paul explained it, and she applied for baptism. She and "her household" were admitted into membership that day. If Lydia was the first one baptized, then she has the distinction of being the first person in Europe to accept Christianity. Whether "her household" means she had children, or whether it refers to her servants or to both we do not know, but they became the nuclueus of a thriving branch of the Church in that city, and in Lydia's home town as well.
After baptism, Lydia invited the missionaries to her home, saying, "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there."