page_title: Lystra
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lystra / History
caption_attribution_description: English: man in white with long grey beard at left center accompanied by man in mint green; both figures wear laurel wreaths; man in white stands behind an altar with burning twigs; three kneeling women at right center with chicken and gold pitcher; silver objects and branches below altar; several other kneeling figures at left; standing figures including two musicians and cow behind; ruined sculpture in LRC; sculpture on tall pedestal behind main figures; buildings close behind background figures
context_page_description: Lystra was a city in central Anatolia, now part of present-day Turkey. It is mentioned six times in the New Testament. Lystra was visited several times by the Paul the Apostle, along with Barnabas or Silas. There Paul met a young disciple, Timothy. Lystra was included by various authors in ancient Lycaonia, Isauria, or Galatia.
context_section_description: The Roman Empire made Lystra a colony in 6 BCE, under the name of Colonia Iulia Felix Gemina, possibly to gain better control of the tribes in the mountains to the west. Later, it was incorporated into the Roman province of Galatia, and soon afterwards the Romans built a road connecting Lystra to Iconium to the north.
  Paul the Apostle visited here to preach the Christian gospel in 48 AD and again in 51 AD on his first and second missionary journeys, initially coming after persecution drove him away from Iconium.
  According to Acts 14:8–10, Paul healed a man who had been lame from birth. The man leaped up and began to walk and thus so impressed the crowd that they took Paul for Hermes, because he was the "chief speaker," and his companion Barnabas for Zeus. The crowd spoke in the local Lycaonian language and wanted to offer sacrifices to them, but Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes in dismay and shouted that they were merely men. They used this opportunity to tell the Lystrans of the Creator God citing 'the rain from heaven and fruitful seasons' as evidence of God's activity and generosity.
  Soon, however, through the influence of the Jewish leaders from Antioch, Pisidia and Iconium, the Lystrans stoned Paul and left him for dead. As the disciples gathered around him, Paul stood on his feet and went back into the town. The next day, he and Barnabas left for Derbe; but on the return part of their journey, they stopped once more at Lystra, encouraging the disciples there to steadfastness.
  Paul visited this city again on his second missionary tour. Timothy, a young disciple there, was probably among those who on the previous occasion at Lystra witnessed Paul's persecution and courage. Timothy left Lystra to become the companion of Paul and Silas on the rest of the Second Missionary Journey. It is also possible that Paul revisited Lystra near the beginning of his Third Missionary Journey.
  Unlike other cities Paul visited, Lystra apparently had no synagogue, although Timothy and his mother and grandmother were Jewish. Lystra appears to have been the first location where the apostles reached the Gentiles with the gospel of Christ without approaching them through the common ground of Judaism. Theologian John Gill linked Paul's reference to 'the rain from heaven and fruitful seasons' to the words of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah: Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
  In Christian times Lystra had a bishop. It is included in the Roman Catholic Church's list of titular sees, the most recent titular bishop having been Bishop Enrique A. Angelelli Carletti in the 1960s, later Bishop of La Rioja, Argentina.
caption: St. Paul and St. Barnabus at Lystra by Willem de Poorter, 1636
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