July
27
The
Seven Holy Sleepers
We will also shortly tell you
that two days from now is the commemoration of the Seven Sleepers, whose names
are said thus: Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, John, Seraphion,
Constantine. These seven faithful soldiers of God were living in the city of
Ephesus in the days of the emperor Decius. They were nobly born before the
world, and were accused to the heathen killer because of their Christianity. He
would not kill them immediately, but because of their noble birth he allowed
them time to think of themselves and bow to his idol when he turned, or else
their bodies would be tortured with various torments. Decius then went to other
cities to torment the Christians, and the seven servants of God sold their possessions
for money and secretly distributed it to the poor, and went from the city to a
great cave under a mountain, and there continued in prayer day and night. When
Decius came back, he ordered them to be sent for; he was told that they were
hidden in the cave, and he, enraged, commanded that the cave’s mouth be sealed
with enormous hewn stones. But a little before this, the merciful God had put
them all to sleep in the cave, and they lay sleeping like that for three
hundred seventy-two years, until Christianity spread over the whole world.
Later after this time, in the
days of the emperor Theodosius, who greatly believed in Christ, it happened
that some workmen found the stone at the cave’s mouth and rolled it away. And
lo, the almighty creator gave life and resurrection to the seven saints who lay
in the cave after so long a sleep, and they were then revealed to the citizens.
This miracle was made known to the Christian Emperor Theodosius, and with
joyful mind he traveled there with all the citizens and bishops and leaders. The
holy martyrs then went out of the cave to the emperor, and their faces shone
like the sun. The Emperor Theodosius fell down before them, and kissed each of
them individually, greatly rejoicing, and said, “I see you as if I saw the
savior Christ when he raised Lazarus from his tomb.” Then the eldest, Maximian,
said to the emperor, “Believe us, the almighty God has raised us from the earth
before the great day for you, that you may believe without doubt that there
will be a resurrection of the dead, now that we have arisen from death and we
live. May your kingdom stand in peace and true faith, and may Christ shield it
against the temptations of the devil.” After this they all again fell before
the emperor, as God commanded, and gave up their spirits, Then the emperor
wanted to make golden shrines for them all, but they appeared to him on the
same night and said, “We arose from earth, let us rest in the earth until God
should raise us again.” Then the emperor and his bishops raised a great church
over their bodies to the praise of almighty God, who lives and reigns forever
to eternity. Amen. (Aelfric, “Saint James,” in The Old English Catholic
Homilies: The Second Series [trans. Roy M. Liuzza; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval
Library 93; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2026], 543, 545, 547)
