Lydia
Biblical, flourished circa C.E. 25, Lydia (modern-day Turkey)
Lydia was a wealthy merchant in the kingdom of Lydia. Her business, the production of purple dye, the color worn by royalty and the upper class, was based in the city of Thyatria. Lydia’s story appears in the Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book of the New Testament, in which it is written that she was hospitable to Saint Paul and his followers and eventually converted to Christianity. Celebrated on August 3 each year, she was the first recorded European convert to Christianity.
