Babylas of Nicomedia

Saint Babylas, martyr, was an elderly Christian, a teacher in Nicomedia, killed together with eighty-⁠four of his pupils in the time of the persecution of the emperor Maximian, between 305 and 311. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 4 September by the old calendar, which is 17 September by the new.

In the persecution of the emperor Maximian, the old man Babylas and his eighty-⁠four pupils were brought to trial in Nicomedia. They were subjected to various tortures, to make them renounce Christianity, because they did not honor the emperor's will and did not offer sacrifices to the idols. Because they refused to renounce the Christian faith, they were long tormented and at last put to death by beheading.

The bodies of those killed were taken secretly by Christians during the night and carried to Byzantium. According to the Serbian source, they were buried on the north side of the walls of Constantinople, near the Chora monastery.

On the same day as Babylas of Nicomedia the memory of Babylas of Antioch is kept, whose history was written by Eusebius of Caesarea. It has been supposed that they might be the same man, and some Byzantine calendars even mix them up, but there are not enough grounds for this.