LYSTRA. - City of Lycaonia, visited by Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, after they had escaped stoning in Iconium (v.). The instantaneous healing of a man lame from birth aroused great enthusiasm among the rough and uncultured population, ready to recognize Paul as the god Hermes and Barnabas as Zeus, with the offering of sacrifices, disdainfully refused by the Apostle.
(phot. Bufort)
LISZT, FRANZ
Portrait. Work by Lehmann - Paris, Musée Carnavalet.
Regarded at the time as a dangerous magician, after a brief period of tolerance he was, in a popular uprising, stoned and left for dead, then saved during the night by the faithful (Acts 14:6-21). On the second missionary journey, St. Paul, accompanied by Silas, stopped at L. and took with him, on the good testimony of the brethren, Timothy, a native of the city and converted during the first visit.
Later Paul would recall, along with the stoning, the devoted care of Lois and Eunice, respectively the grandmother and mother of Timothy (2 Tim 1:5). In the city, made up of a mixed population, no synagogue is mentioned. Timothy's mother was married to a Greek, and her son was not circumcised (Acts 16:1-4). L. acquired importance when Augustus founded a military garrison there against the brigands of the neighboring regions. Every trace of it had been lost until 1886, when Sterret rediscovered its ruins, near the present-day village of Qatj Seraj, with an altar stone dedicated to Augustus by the decurions of the Roman colony.
Bibliography2 works
Donato Baldi