LISTRA (Volg. Lystra). - A city of Licaonia, visited by Paolo and Barnaba on their first missionary journey, after Iconio (v.). The instantaneous healing of a man lame from birth aroused great enthusiasm among the rude and uncultivated population, ready to recognize in Paolo the god Hermes and in Barnaba Zeus, offering sacrifices which the Apostle indignantly refused.
(fot. Bufort)
LISZT, FRANZ - Portrait. Work by Lehmann - Paris, Musée Carnavalet.
Regarded at that 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 (Act. 14, 6-21). On his 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, together with the stoning, the compassionate care of Lois and Eunice, respectively Timothy’s grandmother and mother (II Tim. 1, 5). In the city, composed of a mixed population, no synagogue is mentioned. Timothy’s mother was married to a Greek, and her son was not circumcised (Act. 16, 1-4). L. gained importance when Augustus founded there a military garrison against the brigands of the neighbouring regions. Every trace of it had been lost until 1886, when Sterret rediscovered its ruins near the present-day village of Qatj Seraj, together with an altar-stone dedicated to Augustus by the decurions of the Roman colony.