Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Readings: ACTS 16: 11-15 Psalm 149: 1-6, 9 John 15: 26- 16: 4
Pslm Response: " The Lord takes delight in His peopel"

" Lydia, a dealer in purple!"
What significance can this small detail in this narrative of Luke's 2nd volume have?
We need to have an inkling of the social structure of the times in order for the descriptive account to make sense.
In the Greek and Roman societies, it was not usual for a woman to take an active part in the commerce of the cities and towns..
Purple cloth was the most expensive because the dye, necessary to give cloth a purple shade, usually reserved for the upper classes or Royalty, was extracted, a drop at a time, from a conch-like sea animal.
Lydia may have been the widow. At her husband's death, she would have inherited the Purple Cloth busness from him. Even in our modern cultures, purple denotes upperclasses. We've dubbed it "Royal Purple". Also, as "head of a household", she was responsible for a considerable contingent of folks; included were her immediate family, brothers, sisters and children; but also, those who lived in the typical compound with responsibility for the behavior of all the constituents of the compound.
At this time in History, there is speculation, it is probable, Lydia may have conducted Eucharistic services.
Ordination and formation for priests came much later in the History of Catholicism.
Although there is no empirical evidence to attest to the probabllity, it was usally the head of the household who was designated by the Bishops to follow the primitive liturgy as it was known.