Episcopate and the Barred Emperor
Babylas was bishop of Antioch in the third century, counted as the twelfth holder of that ancient see and the successor of Zebinnus. His episcopate is generally placed in the years surrounding the reign of the emperor Gordian III.
The episode for which he is best known is his refusal to admit a pagan emperor into the church because of the ruler's bloodstained or sinful conduct. The sources do not agree on the emperor's identity: John Chrysostom, who preached on Babylas, leaves him unnamed; the Acts of the Martyrs name Numerian; and many scholars favor Philip the Arab, whom the historian Eusebius reports was barred by a bishop from the Easter vigil, with later legend connecting the demand for penance to Philip's involvement in the death of the young Gordian III.
Martyrdom and Companions
Babylas made his confession of faith during the persecution under the emperor Decius. One early tradition holds that he was cast into prison and died there of his sufferings, and on this account he was venerated as a martyr; the title hieromartyr marks him as a bishop who died for the faith.
The Eastern synaxarion tradition records that he did not suffer alone: three young students, named Ammonius, Donatos, and Faustus, were martyred together with him and are commemorated on the same day.
Relics and the Oracle of Daphne
In the year 351 Caesar Constantius Gallus built a new church in honor of Babylas at Daphne, a suburb of Antioch famous for its temple of Apollo, and had the bishop's remains transferred there. This act is often described as the first recorded translation of the buried remains of a saint.
When the emperor Julian consulted the oracle of Apollo at Daphne in 362, he received no answer, and was told that the silence was due to the nearness of the relics of Babylas. Julian ordered the saint's sarcophagus exhumed and reburied elsewhere; only days afterward a fire broke out in the temple, consuming its roof and the statue of the god. These events made Babylas a celebrated witness in the conflict between the Church and the last pagan emperor.
