Baptistery of Lydia

The modern Baptistery of St Lydia is an octagonal church beside a shallow stream about two kilometres east of the Philippi site, near the village of Lydia (Greek: Λυδία). The church was built in 1974 and is more interesting for the setting than for the architecture: a clear cool stream, large plane trees, a stone-built outdoor baptismal pool beside the church, and a relentless succession of pilgrims and busloads of Greek school groups.

The church is open daily. A small chapel and the open-air baptismal pool are the two stops. The walk along the stream from the church up towards the original Philippi site is a pleasant kilometre on a hot summer afternoon.

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A story
Lydia of Thyatira was a merchant in purple dyes — a luxury trade — and the first person Paul converted in Europe. The Krenides stream outside Philippi is named in Acts 16 as the place where she was baptised, and the modern Greek state built an octagonal church beside the stream in 1974 to mark the spot. Each year on her saint's day in May, a pilgrimage gathers here, and the stream is full of people undergoing immersion baptisms.

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