Weekly Sunday Bulletin-September 4, 2016
11th Sunday of Matthew
Babylas the Holy Martyr
Saint Babylas was the 12th Bishop of Antioch. He was beheaded during the reign of Decius, in the year 250, and at his own request was buried in the chains with which he was bound. The Emperor Gallus (reigned 351-354) built a church in his honour at Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, to put an end to the demonic oracles at the nearby temple of Apollo. When Julian the Apostate came in 362 to consult the oracle about his campaign against the Persians, the oracle (that is, the demon within it) remained dumb until at last, answering Julian’s many sacrifices and supplications, it told him, “The dead prevent me from speaking.” It told Julian to dig up the bones and move them. Julian, then, in the words of Saint John Chrysostom, “leaving all the other dead, moved only that Martyr.” He commanded the Christians to take away Saint Babylas’ bones, which they did. When this had been done, a thunderbolt fell from heaven destroying with fire the shrine of Apollo, which Julian did not dare rebuild. Saint John Chrysostom preached a sermon on this within a generation after.
Parish Council on Duty:
John Argiropoulos, Jeffrey Bartfield, John Ioannou, Jr., Tony Maiorana, Anna Merkel, Demetri Rapanos,Katherine Ziegler
