A Christian teacher martyred at Nicomedia together with his eighty-four young pupils
The Holy Martyr Babylas of Nicomedia and the Eighty-Four Children with Him
Babylas of Nicomedia was a Christian teacher who, according to the synaxarion, was martyred together with his eighty-four young pupils during the persecution under the emperor Maximian (284-305). He is commemorated on September 4. The tradition presents him as an elderly and infirm man who occupied himself with instructing children in the Christian faith, and it is for this teaching that he was eventually denounced to the authorities.
When Babylas was brought before the emperor, he confessed his faith in the true God and refused to renounce it. For this he was subjected to many torments: the accounts relate that he was pelted with stones and bound in irons in prison. His steadfastness under torture did not move his persecutors to release him, and attention then turned to the children who had been under his instruction.
The eighty-four pupils were brought before the emperor in turn, but neither flattery nor the promise of gifts could alter their Christian conviction. The tradition records the bold reply of two of them, named Ammonias and Donatus, who declared that they were Christians and would not offer sacrifice to idols. The emperor ordered the children to be scourged and then put to death by beheading together with their teacher. The synaxarion relates that on the way to execution Babylas applied to himself and his pupils the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'Behold, I and the children whom God has given me' (Isaiah 8:18).
This Babylas, the schoolteacher of Nicomedia commemorated on September 4, is a distinct figure from the better-known Hieromartyr Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, who is commemorated separately. The two share a name and the rank of martyr but belong to different cities and accounts; care is taken in the calendars to keep them apart.