He was the successor of Zebinus as Bishop of Antioch in the reign of the Emperor Gordian III (238-244), being the twelfth bishop of the see.
John Chrysostom's homily upon Saint Babylas and the Acts of the Martyrs report the following story, that Babylas once refused the visiting pagan emperor, on account of his sinful ways, permission to enter the church and had ordered him to take his place among the penitents.