Persecution and Sealing in the Cave
By the OCA account the seven youths lived in the third century as childhood friends and military companions in Ephesus. When the Emperor Decius arrived in the city he demanded that all citizens sacrifice to the pagan gods. The youths were denounced, brought before the emperor, and confessed their faith in Christ. They are said to have given their possessions to the poor before withdrawing.
Rather than executing them at once, Decius permitted them time to recant during his military campaign, hoping they would renounce their faith. The youths fled to a cave on Mount Ochlon (also called Mount Pion) to pray and prepare for martyrdom. On learning their location, the emperor ordered the cave sealed with stones to starve them. By tradition, two secret Christians among the officials placed within the sealed cave a container with plaques recording the youths' names and their suffering.
The Awakening
The accounts place the awakening in the reign of Theodosius II (408–450), traditionally in the year 447, during disputes among various Christian schools over the resurrection of the body. The sleepers awoke with their bodies undecayed, unaware that nearly two centuries — about 197 years — had passed.
By tradition one of the youths was sent into Ephesus to buy provisions. He found the city transformed, with crosses on the buildings as signs of the triumph of Christianity, and his attempt to spend old coins from the reign of Decius bewildered the merchants and authorities, revealing the great span of time. The bishop was summoned to question the youths, who recounted the miracle, after which they reposed praising God. Their awakening was received as a divine confirmation of the resurrection of the dead at Christ's Second Coming, countering those who denied bodily resurrection.
Relics & Shrines
The principal site associated with the youths is a grotto on Mount Pion near Ephesus, in present-day Selçuk, Turkey, over which a religious complex was built. The site was excavated in 1926–1928, bringing to light several hundred graves dated to the fifth and sixth centuries, with inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers found on the walls and in the graves; the grotto is still shown to visitors. Other locations have also been claimed in connection with the youths, including sites in Damascus, Afşin, Tarsus, and near Amman in Jordan.
The Russian pilgrim Igumen Daniel reported viewing their relics in the twelfth century.
Sources and Transmission
The earliest written version of the account derives from the Syriac bishop Jacob of Serugh (c. 450–521), who drew on an earlier Greek source that is now lost. Gregory of Tours included the story in his collection in the late sixth century.
By the medieval period the legend circulated widely, existing in at least nine medieval languages and in more than two hundred manuscripts from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, including Latin, Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopian, Coptic, Armenian, Middle Irish, and Old English versions. The names differ by tradition: the Catholic tradition lists Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Joannes, Serapion, and Constantinus, and Syriac accounts typically numbered eight figures.
