Donatus

The holy Martyr Donatus is one of the three young disciples of the holy Hieromartyr Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, who suffered together with him. The Church commemorates them on 4 September. The Greek Great Synaxaristes names the three as Ammonius, Donatus and Faustus, while the calendar of the Church of Greece speaks of Donatus and his two brothers.

Saint Babylas shepherded the Church of Antioch in the third century. The Greek synaxaria relate that he lived in the time of the emperor Numerian, who had killed the son of the Persian king, held as a hostage. The bishop firmly condemned this deed. When the emperor wished to enter the church of Antioch for the service, Babylas would not allow him, showing him that a murderer has no place in the house of God. The angry emperor had him arrested and imprisoned.

The next day the bishop was beheaded. His three disciples ran to stand beside him. They too were seized and, because they would not deny the faith, they were put to the sword. So Donatus received the crown of martyrdom together with his teacher.

Historians place the death of Saint Babylas in the persecution of Decius, around the year 250, and Saint John Chrysostom also speaks of the emperor whom he barred at the church door. Other ancient sources, among them the Menologion of Emperor Basil II, give the three youths different names: Urban, Prilidian and Epolonius, with their mother Christodoula. These differences show that the tradition about the disciples of Babylas was handed down in more than one form.

The relics of Saint Babylas were honoured for a long time at Antioch and in its suburb of Daphne. The troparion of the day shows the hierarch standing before Christ together with the youths he prepared for martyrdom, and the Church celebrates them together on 4 September.