Holy Hieromartyr Babylas, Archbishop of Antioch, and those with him

Saint Babylas of Antioch, along with Saints Ourbanos, Prilidianos and Apollonios

Today is the fourth of September, which is the feast day of the holy anti-Nazi martyr Bishop Saint Gorazd of Prague, who sheltered the Czech insurgents who carried out Operation Anthropoid in 1942. It is also, coincidentally, my daughter Eleanore’s birthday, who was born 70 years, to the day, after Saint Gorazd’s martyrdom. It is also the feast day of Saint Babylas, the twelfth (or thirteenth, if you count Saint Peter) Archbishop of Antioch, and a particular favourite of Saint John Chrysostom, who gave a touching homily in his memory. Saint Babylas was, like his Czech fellow hieromartyr with whom he shares a feast, a speaker of truth to power. He is commemorated alongside the young brothers Ourbanos, Prilidianos and Apollonios, and their mother Saint Christodoula, who were martyred alongside their bishop.

Saint Babylas [Gk. Βαβύλας, Ar. Bâbîlâ بابيلا] was born probably in the late second century, and was a native of Antioch. We may assume that he became a monk at some point. We also know that he succeeded Zebinas (Ozniophios) as the Archbishop of Antioch in the year 237. He continued as the Archbishop of Antioch through the reign of the Emperor Trajan Decius, who ruled from 249 to 251 – though the name of the emperor who executed Saint Babylas is not named by Chrysostom. Decius visited Antioch toward the end of his reign and held a huge festival in honour of the pagan gods. At that time, Saint Babylas held the Divine Liturgy in the great Church in Antioch, during the homily giving comfort and strength to his flock and admonishing them to stay steadfast through all trials. It so happened that the Emperor sought admission to the Church, for he was curious about the rites of the Christians – or so he claimed. However, when the Archbishop heard this, he went out of the church and blocked the path of the Emperor, refusing the Emperor admittance on account of his impiety, which he would not sanction within the house of God.

To save face – and because the Christians would have started a riot had he proceeded – Trajan Decius had no choice but to withdraw. But his heart was poisoned against Saint Babylas, and he sought revenge against the Archbishop for the slight to his imperial dignity. On the following day the troops of Decius set fire to the church, seized the Archbishop, and led him before the emperor. The emperor demanded to know the reason for Saint Babylas’s act of lèse-majesté, and the saint offered this reply: ‘Anyone who would rise up against God and want to desecrate His sanctuary, is not worthy of respect, but has become the enemy of the Lord.’

Trajan Decius then ordered Babylas to bow before the idols and make offerings to them, to expunge his crime against the Emperor, but no matter how he was cajoled or threatened he would do no such thing. Then the angry emperor ordered Saint Babylas to be bound in heavy chains and led through the streets in public disgrace. To this the saint replied: ‘Emperor, for me these chains be as venerable, as for thee is thine imperial crown; and the suffering for Christ for me is as acceptable, as is the imperial power for thee; death for the Immortal King for me is as desirable, as thine life be for thee.’

Together with Saint Babylas, three children were brought before the Emperor – these were the aforementioned Ourbanos, Prilidianos and Apollonios. The three of them refused to abandon their archbishop, and stood together with him. When the Emperor demanded to know who they were, the saint replied that they were his spiritual children, and that they had attained to a high degree of spiritual and moral perfection. With that, the Emperor turned his blandishments and threats upon the children and upon their mother Christodoula, and when none of them would submit to worship the idols, he ordered them to be whipped heavily according to their ages: the eldest received twelve blows; the second, ten; and the youngest, seven. The executioner then led the children and their mother away, and later the Emperor told Saint Babylas that they had renounced Christ – however, Saint Babylas was given to know that what the Emperor told him was a lie.

The children, their mother, and Archbishop Babylas were then all sentenced to be tied to a tree-trunk, their flesh burned, and finally beheaded, and thus they all received the crown of martyrdom for Christ Jesus.

Saint Babylas, Saint Christodoula and the three youths martyred with them very quickly became the objects of fervent and heartfelt veneration among the Christians of Antioch, who offered prayers over their dear relics at the site of their burial. In the 350s, however, the relics were translated from their original resting-place into a shrine in the district of Daphnē, which for the pagans was sacred to Apollo. It was also renowned as something of a ‘red-light district’ in Classical Antioch, and its cypress grove was the site of trysts and prostitution both sæcular and otherwise. The relics of Babylas and those martyred with him were moved there in part to counteract the reputation of this district – as Chrysostom would say, ‘a physician to the sick’.

Chrysostom recounts that Julian the Apostate, when he visited Antioch, sought advice from the Oracle of Apollo in Daphnē, but the oracle gave no answer – and this was determined to be on account of the propinquity of the saint’s relics. As a result, Julian had the martyrs’ relics exhumed and moved back to their original resting-place. A few days later, however, on the twenty-second of October, the roof of the Temple of Apollo in Daphnē caught fire, destroying the statue of the god within. Julian, suspecting that Christians had been behind an act of arson, closed the Cathedral at Antioch while he ordered an investigation that turned up very little of use – though some spurious charges were laid at the feet of a lax worshipper who was careless with a candle. Saint John Chrysostom claims that the fire was caused by a bolt of lightning from heaven.

Saint John Chrysostom also alludes in his homily that a new church for Saint Babylas was constructed, the Kaoussie Church, on the order of his successor Saint Meletios, who took part in the construction with the work of his own hands. This church was built on the banks of the Nahr al-‘Âṣî (that is, the Orontes) specifically to house the relics of the saint. However, in the Middle Ages, the relics of Saint Babylas were said to have been removed from Antioch and installed in Cremona, Italy. Holy Saint Babylas, speaker of Christ’s Truth even before emperors, pray unto Christ our God for our salvation!

Apolytikion for Saint Babylas, Tone 4:

By sharing in the ways of the Apostles,
You became a successor to their throne.
Through the practice of virtue,
You found the way to divine contemplation, O inspired one of God;
By teaching the word of truth without error,
You defended the Faith, even to the shedding of your blood.
Hieromartyr Babylas, entreat Christ God to save our souls.

Kaoussie Church (or Martyrion of Saint Babylas), Antioch