Babylas, Bishop of the Church at Antioch, and Three Youths, Urban, Philidian

Babylas, bishop of the church of Antioch, the capital of Syria, situated on the river Orontes, was a very godly and faithful shepherd of the flock of Christ. Knowing beforehand that this severe persecution was threatening the church of Christ, he very diligently instructed not only men and women, but also children, in the principles of the Christian faith, and constantly urged them in his preaching not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His name. As to the cause of his imprisonment, the ancients have briefly described it this way: namely, that the Emperor Decius came to one of the congregations of the Christians and asked to be admitted; but that the shepherd of that congregation or church, namely Babylas, in order to spare the congregations, opposed him boldly, saying that it was not lawful for him to enter the house of the living God so audaciously, and to view the mysteries of the Lord with his polluted eyes, or to touch them with his murderous hands still covered with blood. The Emperor, unable to bear this, had Babylas, together with several others, seized, bound with chains, and placed in severe confinement.

Those who were arrested with him, and were finally put to death, were, as appears from the records, three young men, brothers, and were called Urban, Philidian, and Epolonius; who, as some suppose, were his own children by birth, but according to others, his spiritual children, because he had won them for Christ through the doctrine of the truth.

When the hour of his departure began to draw near, when he was to be offered up, and his disciples or other good friends came to visit him in prison, he earnestly asked, as a last request of them, to bury him with his fetters, chains, and bonds.

Concerning his death, Eusebius Pamphilius writes: "Bishop Babylas fell asleep in the Lord, in prison, at Antioch, after having made his confession, in all things like Alexander." Hist. Eccl. Edition of the year 1588, book 6, chapter 39, folio 121, letters F, G.

But since all the other fathers who have written of Babylas speak of him as a martyr, they also state that he was executed with the sword. The records of his death, faithfully collected by Suidas and others from the most ancient writers, read as follows: "When Babylas was sentenced by the Emperor Decius to be beheaded, together with the three young men mentioned before, he sang the comforting words of the 116th Psalm on his way to the place of execution: 'Return to your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. He has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.'"

When Babylas and the three young men had arrived at the place where they were to be beheaded, Babylas begged that they would first put to death before his eyes the three youths (whether they were his own children by birth or his spiritual children), so that they might not be deterred or discouraged by his death from dying for the name of Christ.

While the executioners were busy executing the children, he prayed to the Lord, saying: "Here am I, Lord, and the children whom You have given me." And in this way he encouraged the children to suffer steadfastly for the Lord.

After this, Babylas also fell asleep very peacefully in the Lord, having commended his soul into the hands of the Lord, to bring it to the eternal rest of which he had spoken just before his death.

The mother of these children, and the brothers and sisters of the church of Antioch, buried the dead bodies of these martyrs in a decent manner, together with the chains and fetters with which Babylas had been bound during his life.

So this good father and his dear children took an honorable departure from this world together on the same day, and are now awaiting the blessed hope and the revelation of the great God, and their Savior, Jesus Christ, for whose honor and glory they suffered these things. Abr. Mell., 1st book, folio 68, column 4, and folio 69, columns 1, 2, from Euseb., book 6, chapter 29. Epiphan. book de Mens. and Pond. Hieron. Catal. in Origene. Chrysost. Eunt. Gent. and Homed. 9 ad Ephes. Suidas in Babyla. acta ex Patribus Collecta. Suid in Hist. sub. nom. Babylm. [n201-1]

NOTE. P. J. Twisck, who begins this persecution by Decius with the year 251, fixes the death of this man, Babylas, in the second year of his reign, namely, in the year 252. Chron. 3rd book, Q. 70, column 1, from Hist. Andr., folio 21. But Abr. Mellinus, who begins the persecution with the year 253, fixes his death in the year 254 (although the printer has mistakenly made it the year 264; for Decius reigned only two years), and this is therefore the second year of Decius. We have followed the latter author.