Seven Sleepers

In the days of the Roman emperor Decius, about the year 250, seven young men of Ephesus—commonly named Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Joannes, Serapion, and Constantinus—were accused of being Christians. Given time to recant, they refused to bow before pagan idols. Instead they distributed their worldly goods to the poor and withdrew to a mountain cave outside the city to pray. There the Lord cast them into a deep sleep. When Decius learned that their resolve was unbroken, he ordered the mouth of the cave sealed with masonry so that they might perish within.

Decius died in 251. Christianity, long persecuted, became the religion of the Empire. Generations passed. In the reign of Theodosius II (408–450), when disputes arose among Christians concerning the resurrection of the body, a landowner opened the sealed cave, intending to use it as a cattle pen. The seven youths awoke, believing they had slept only a single night. They sent one of their number into Ephesus to buy food, warning him to move carefully. He found the city transformed: churches marked with the Cross stood openly, and the people were astonished that he offered coins stamped with the image of Decius. The bishop was summoned. The sleepers told him how God had preserved them, bore witness to the truth of the resurrection, and then, having praised God, fell asleep again in death.

Tradition places their awakening around the year 447 or 478. Gregory of Tours and later the Golden Legend spread the account throughout the West. A church already stood over their grotto at Ephesus by the early sixth century; pilgrims thronged the site, and bones identified as theirs were later carried to the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille. The Church has honored them as the Holy Seven Youths since at least the fifth century. In the Catholic calendar they are commemorated on 27 July; the Byzantine Church keeps their memory on 4 August and 22 October.

May the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus obtain for us the grace of unshaken faith and the hope of the resurrection, that we may prefer Christ to every earthly security today.