Baptistery of St. Lydia

Our Church honours Lydia as a Saint and Equal-to-the-Apostles and celebrates her memory every year on May 20th. In the sacred place of her baptism, a church-Baptistery was erected, just as on the adjacent bank of the river Zygaktos, an open-air Baptistery was established, similar to those preserved in the early Christian Basilicas of Philippi. The new buildings do not merely recall past events nor do they superficially evoke the romantic mood of today's Christians. They bear witness to the apostolic roots of our faith, they affirm the stable and unchanging liturgical practice of our Church, through which Jesus Christ is glorified, who is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

With particular splendour and all solemnity, the anniversary of the memory of the glorious Saint and Equal-to-the-Apostles Lydia of Philippi is celebrated every year. In Apostolodiabato, a place blessed by God in Philippi, in the specially designed Church-Baptistery and in the open-air Baptistery, clergy and laity of the Metropolis of Philippi, Neapolis and Thasos, led by His Eminence Metropolitan Prokopios, participate in the planned festive liturgical events.