De septem dormientibus
The Flight and the Sleep
Seven young Christians flee the persecution of Decius and fall into a miraculous sleep in a cave.
The Seven Sleepers were born in the city of Ephesus. When the Emperor Decius, who was persecuting the Christians, arrived in Ephesus, he ordered temples to be built in the middle of the city so that everyone would join him in sacrificing to the idols. When this happened... Once he ordered all the Christians to be hunted down and forced to either sacrifice or die, such a terror of punishment gripped everyone that friend betrayed friend, father betrayed son, and son betrayed father. At that time, seven Christians were found in the city—Maximianus, Malchus, Marcianus, Dionysius, Johannes, Serapion, and Constantinus—who were deeply grieved to see this. Because they were among the first of the palace, they hid in their own home, shunning the sacrifices to the idols, and spent their time in fasting and prayer; when they were accused and brought before Decius and proven to be truly Christian, they were released and given time to reconsider until Decius returned, but in the meantime, they gave away their wealth to the poor, took counsel together, and withdrew to Mount Celion, where they decided to live in greater seclusion. While they were hiding there for a long time, one of them would always go out to serve them, and whenever he entered the city, he would disguise himself in the clothes and manner of a beggar. So when Decius returned to the city and ordered them to be hunted down to make them sacrifice, Malchus, their servant, was terrified and returned to his companions to tell them of the emperor's fury. As they were gripped by great fear, Malchus set before them the bread he had brought so that, strengthened by food, they might be better prepared for the struggle. After they had eaten, while they were sitting and talking together in sorrow and tears, they suddenly fell asleep, just as God had willed.
The Sealed Cave and the Divine Purpose
Decius seals the cave to kill the youths, but centuries later, God awakens them to combat heresy regarding the resurrection.
When morning came, since they had been sought but could not be found, and Decius was pained that he had lost such young men, they were accused of having hidden until then on Mount Celion, and of remaining in their purpose while giving away their wealth to the Christian poor. Decius therefore ordered their parents to be brought before him and threatened them with death unless they told him whatever they knew about them. They, however, accused them in the same way and complained that they had spent their wealth on the poor. Then, thinking about what he should do with them, by the will of God he ordered the mouth of the cave to be blocked with stones, so that they would die there, shut in by hunger and need. The servants did this, and two Christians, Theodorus and Rufinus, wrote down their martyrdom and carefully placed it among the stones. After Decius and that whole generation had died, 372 years later, in the thirtieth year of the reign of Theodosius, a heresy sprang up among those who denied the resurrection of the dead; because of this, the most Christian emperor Theodosius was saddened, and seeing the faith so impiously attacked, he sat in an inner room wearing sackcloth and wept every day. Seeing this, the merciful God wished to comfort those who were mourning and to confirm the hope of the resurrection of the dead; opening the treasury of His mercy, He raised up the aforementioned martyrs. He indeed put it into the heart of a certain citizen of Ephesus to build stables for his shepherds on that mountain.
The Awakening and the City Changed
The sleepers awaken and Malchus enters an Ephesus that has been transformed by the Christian faith, leading to his confusion and arrest.
When the stonemasons opened the cave, the saints rose up and greeted one another, thinking they had only slept for a single night. Remembering their previous sorrow, they asked Malchus, who had served them, what Decius had decided about them. But he answered just as he had said that evening: "We were sought out so that we might sacrifice to idols." Look at what the emperor is planning for us. Maximianus replied, "And God knows that we will not sacrifice." Once he had encouraged his companions, he ordered Malchus to go down to the city to buy bread, return and report what the emperor had commanded, and bring back more bread than he had the day before. So Marcus took five coins, left the cave, and was amazed to see the stones, but thinking of other things, he gave little thought to the stones themselves. Coming timidly to the city gate, he was astonished to see the sign of the cross placed there. When he went to another gate and found the same sign, he was amazed beyond measure to see the cross on all the gates and the city changed. Crossing himself, he returned to the first gate, thinking he was dreaming. Steadying himself and covering his face, he entered the city. When he reached the bread sellers, he heard men speaking about Christ. Even more stunned, he said, "What is this? Yesterday no one dared to name Christ, and now everyone confesses Him?" I don't think this is the city of Ephesus, because it's built differently, but I don't know any other city like it. When he asked and heard that this was indeed Ephesus, he truly thought he was mistaken and considered going back to his companions. Yet he approached those who were selling bread, and when he brought out the silver coins, the merchants were amazed and said to one another that this young man must have found an ancient treasure. Malchus, however, seeing them talking among themselves, thought they wanted to drag him before the emperor, and terrified, he begged them to let him go and keep both the bread and the silver. But they held onto him and asked, "Where are you from?" "Since you've found the treasures of ancient emperors, tell us, and we'll be your partners and hide you, because you can't be hidden otherwise." Malchus, however, couldn't find anything to say to them out of fear. Seeing him silent, they put a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets into the middle of the city, and the rumor spread to everyone that a certain young man had found treasures. When everyone had gathered around him and was marveling at him, he wanted to satisfy them by saying he had found nothing; but as he looked around at everyone, he couldn't be recognized by anyone, and looking out into the crowd, he wanted to recognize someone among his own relatives whom he thought were still alive, but finding no one, he stood there like a madman in the middle of the city's crowd. When Saint Martin the bishop and Antipater the proconsul, who had recently arrived in the city, heard this, they ordered the citizens to bring him and his silver coins to them carefully. And as he was being dragged by the guards to the church, he thought he was being led to the emperor.
The Revelation of the Miracle
The authorities interrogate Malchus, eventually discovering the truth of the sleepers and the ancient letter confirming their identity.
The bishop and the proconsul, therefore, were amazed by the coins and asked him where he had found this unknown treasure. But he replied that he hadn't found anything at all, but that these were the same coins from his parents' purse. He said he had possessed them. When asked which city he was from, he answered, "I know well that I am from this city, if this is indeed the city of Ephesus." The proconsul said, "Have your parents come here to testify for you." When he named them and no one recognized them, they claimed he was faking it to escape somehow. The proconsul said, "How can we believe you that this silver belonged to your parents, when its inscription is over three hundred seventy-seven years old, dates back to the early days of the Emperor Decius, and looks nothing like our coins?" How could your parents have lived so long ago, yet you, a young man, try to deceive the wise men and elders of Ephesus? "For that reason, I'm going to have you handed over to the authorities until you confess what you've found." Then Malchus, falling down before them, said, "For God's sake, masters, answer what I'm asking you, and I'll tell you what's in my heart." "The Emperor Decius, who was in this city—where is he now?" The bishop said, "My son, there's no one on earth today who's called Decius; that emperor lived a long time ago." But Malchus said, "In this, master, I'm so stunned, and no one believes me; but follow me, and I'll show you my companions who are on Mount Celion, and you can believe them." "For I know this: we fled from the face of the Emperor Decius, and I saw only recently that Decius had entered this city, if this is indeed the city of Ephesus." Then the bishop, reflecting within himself, said to the proconsul that this was a vision that God wished to show through this young man. They went with him, therefore, along with a great crowd from the city. Malchus entered first to his companions, and the bishop, following him inside, found among the stones a letter sealed with two silver seals. He called the people together and read it, and as everyone listened in wonder, seeing the saints of God sitting in the cave with their faces like blooming roses, they fell down and glorified God. Immediately, the bishop and the proconsul sent word to the Emperor Theodosius, asking him to come quickly and see the miracles of God that had just been revealed. He immediately rose from the ground, putting aside the sack in which he'd been mourning, and glorifying God, he came.
The Resurrection Witnessed
The emperor meets the sleepers, who testify to the reality of the resurrection before peacefully passing away.
They traveled from Constantinople to Ephesus, and as everyone came out to meet them, they all climbed up to the cave together. As soon as the saints saw the emperor, their faces shone like the sun. The emperor entered, fell down before them, and praised God; then he rose, embraced them, and wept over each one, saying, "I see you just as if I were seeing the Lord raising Lazarus." Then Saint Maximianus said to him, "Believe us, for God has raised us up before the day of the great resurrection for your sake, so that you may believe without a doubt that the resurrection of the dead is real." For we have truly risen and are alive. Just as an infant in its mother's womb lives without feeling any harm, so we were lying there, seeing and sleeping, without feeling anything. With these words, while everyone watched, they bowed their heads to the ground, fell asleep, and surrendered their spirits according to God's command. The emperor rose, fell upon them weeping and kissing them, and after he had ordered golden caskets to be made to place them in, they appeared to the emperor that very night. They told him that just as they had lain in the earth until now and had risen from the earth, he should leave them as they were until the Lord should raise them up again. The emperor therefore ordered that place to be adorned with gilded stones and all the bishops who believed in the resurrection to be absolved. The claim that they slept for 372 years may be open to doubt, because they rose in the year of the Lord 448, and Decius reigned for only one year and three months—in the year of the Lord 252—so they did not sleep for 196 years.
Read the original Latin
Septem dormientes in civitate Ephesi orti sunt. Decius autem imperator persequens christianos cum venisset Ephesum, jussit aedificari templa in medio civitatis, nt omnes cum eo miscerentur sacrificiis ydolorum. Cum. ergo omnes christianos inquiri jussisset et vinctos aut sacrificare aut mori compelleret, tantus poenarum terror cunctis inerat, quod amicus amicum et filium pater et patrem filius abnegabat, Tunc in illa urbe inventi sunt christiani septem, Maximianus , Malchus, Marcianus, Dionysius, Johannes, Serapion et Constantinus, qui hoc videntes nimis dolebant. Et cum essent primi palatii, sacrificia ydolorum spernentes in domo sua 8e celabant et jejuniis et orationibus vacabant, accusati igitur ante Decium statuuntur et comprobati veraciter christiani dato iis resipiscendi spatio usque ad reditum Decii dimittuntur, at illi patrimonium suum interim inter pauperes expendentes inito consilio in montem Celion secesserunt et ibi esse secretius decreverunt. Diu ergo sic latentes unus eorum semper ministrabat et quoties intrabat urbem, figura se mendici et habitu vestiebat Cum ergo Decius in urbem rediisset et eos ad sacrificandum perquiri jussisset, Malchus minister eorum territus ad socios rediit et iis furorem imperatoris indicavit. Qui cum graviter terrerentur, Malchus allatos panes iis apposuit, ut cibo confortati fortiores ad praelium redderentur. Postquam autem coenabant sedentes et colloquentes in luctu œt lacrymis, subito, sicut Deus voluit, dormiveruut.
Mane facto cam qnaesiti fuissent et inveniri non possent et Decius doleret, quod tales juvenes perdidisset, accusati sunt, quod hucusque in monte Celion latuissent et sua christianis pauperibus erogantes in suo proposito permanerent. Jussit ergo Decius, ut parentes eorum adessent, et comminatus est iis mortem, nisi de iis dicerent, quidquid scirent. llli autem eos similiter accusaverunt et divitias suas pauperibus expendisse conquesti sunt. Tunc cogitans, quid de iis faceret, nutu Dei jussit os speluncae lapidibus obstrui, ut ibi morerentur fame et inopia circumclusi. Quod ministri quidem 28 fecerunt et duo christiani Theodorus et Rufinus eorum martirium describentes caute inter lapides posuerunt. Mortuo igitur Decio et tota illa generatione post annos CCCLXXII anno XXX imperii Theodosii pullulavit haeresis eorum, qui negabant resurrectionem mortuorum, unde contristatus Theodosius christianissimus imperator, quia fidem tam impie agitari videbat, indutus cilicio sedens in interiori loco per singulos dies flebat. Quod videns misericors Deus consolari lugentes et confirmare spem de resurrectione voluit mortuorum et thesaurum suae pietatis aperiens ita praedictos martires suscitavit. Misit siquidem in cor cujusdam civis Ephesi, ut in illo monte aedificaret stabula pastoribus suis.
Caementariis speluncam aperientibus surrexerunt sancti et se invicem salutantes putabantse tantum una nocte dormivisse et praedianam tristitiam recordantes interrogaverunt Malchum, qui iis ministraverat, quid de iis Decius decrevisset. At ille respondit, sicut dixit in sero: quaesiti fuimus, ut ydolis immolemus. Ecce quod de nobis cogitat imperator. Respondit Maximianus: et Deus scit, quod non sacrificabimus. Gumque socios confortasset, jussit Malcho, ut emturus panes ad urbem descenderet et plures quam heri afferens panes, quae jussisset imperator, rediens nuntiaret. Tollens ergo Marcus quinque solidos de spelunca exiit et videns lapides miratus est, sed aliud cogitans parum de lapidibus cogitavit. Veniens igitur timidus ad portam urbis valde miratus est videns suppositum signum crucis, unde pergens ad alteram portam, dum idem signum invenit, ultra modum miratus est videns omnes portas signo crucis apposito et mutatam civitatem, signansque se ad primam portam rediit existimans se somniare. Unde se confirmans et vultum operiens urbem ingreditur et veniens ad venditores panum audivit homines loquentes de Christo et amplius stupefactus ait: quid est, inquit, quod heri nemo Christum audebat nominare, et nunc omnes Christum confitentur?
puto, quod haec non est Ephesorum civitas, quia aliter aedificata est, sed aliam civitatem nescio talem. Et cum interrogans audivisset, hanc esse Ephesum, errare veraciter se putavit et redire ad socios cogitavit, accessit tamen ad eos, qui panem vendebant, et cum argenteos protulisset, mirati venditores dicebant ad invicem, quod ille juvenis antiquum thesaurum invenisset, Malchus vero eos ad invicem loquentes videns putabat, quod vellent eum trahere ad imperatorem, et territus rogavit eos, nt se dimitterent et panes et argenteos retinerent. At illi tenentes eum - dixerunt el: unde es tu? quia thesauros antiquorum imperatorum invenisti, indica nobis et erimus socii tecum et celabimus te, quia aliter celari non potes. Malchus vero non inveniebat, quid diceret illis, prae timore, illi vero videntes eum tacentem misso fune in collo ejus trahebant per vicos usque in medium civitatis et exiit rumor ad omnes, quod quidam juvenis thesauros invenisset. Congregatis ergo ad eum universis et eum mirantibus volebat iis satisfacere, quod nihil invenerat, et circumspiciens omnes à nemine cognosci poterat et prospiciens in populum volebat cognoscere aliquem de eonsanguineis suis, quos veraciter vivere putabat, et nullum inveniens stabat quasi insanus in medio populi civitatis. Quod cum audiisset sanctus Martinus episcopus et Antipater proconsul, qui nuper in urbem advenerat, mandaverunt civibus, ut eum caute adducerent et argenteos ejus. Cumque a ministris traheretur ad ecclesiam, putabat, quod duceretur ad imperatorem.
Episcopus igitur et proconsul mirantes argenteos interrogaverunt eum, ubi thesaurum incognitum invenisset. At ille respondit, se nihil penitus invenisse, sed de sacculo parentum suorum eosdem denarios. habuisse. Et interrogatus, cujus civitatis esset, respondit: bene scio, quod hujus civitatis sum, si tahtum haec est civitas Ephesorum. Proconsul dixit: fac venire parentes tuos, ut testentur pro ie. Quos cum nominasset et nallus eos cognosceret, dicebant eum sé fingere, ut aliquo modo evaderet. Et ait proconsul: quomodo credimus tibi, quod hoc argentum parentum tuorum fuerit, cum scriptura ejus habeat plus quam trecentos septuaginta septem annos et sit primorum dierum Decii imperatoris et in nullo similes sint argenteis nostris? Et quomodo parentes tui ante tantum tempus fuerunt, tu vero juvenis vis decipere sapientes et senes Ephesi?
Idcirco jubebo te legibus tradi, donec confitearis, quid invenisti, Tunc procidens Malchus ante ees dixit: pro Deo, domini, dicite mihi, quod vos interrogo, et ego dicam vobis, quod est in corde meo. Decius imperator, qui fuit in hac civitate, ubi nunc est? Episcopus dixit: fili, non est hodie in terra, qui Decius nominatur, imperator autem fuit ante longum tempus. Malchus autem dixit: in hoc, domine, ita stupeo et nemo credit mihi, sed sequimini me et ostendam vobis socios meos, qui sunt in monte Celio, et ipsis credite. Hoc enim scio, quod a facie Decii imperatoris nos fugimus et ego sero vidi, quod ingressus est Decius in hanc urbem, si tantum haec est civitas Ephesi. Tuno episcopus cogitaus in semet ipso dixit proconsuli, quia visio est, quam Deus vult ostendere in juvene isto. Perrexerunt ergo cum eo et civitatis plurima multitudo et ingressus est primo Malchus ad socios suos et post eum episcopus ingrediens invenit inter lapides litteras sigillatas duobus sigillis argenteis et convocato populo legit eas et audientibus et admirantibus eunctis, et videntes sanctos Dei sedentes in spelunca et facies eorum tamquam rosas florentes procidentes glorificaverunt Deum statimque episcopus el proconsul miserunt ad Theodosium imperatorem rogantes, ut cito veniret et miracula Dei nuper ostensa videret. Qui protinus surgens de humo etide sacco, in quo lugebat, glorificans Deum venit a.
Constantinopoli Ephesum et obviantibus ei cunctis adscenderunt simul omnes ad speluncam et mox ut sancti viderunt imperatorem, resplenduerunt et facies eorum sicut sol et ingressus imperator procidit ante eos glorificaus Deum et surgens amplexatus est eos et super singulos flevit dicens : sic video vos, tamquam si viderem dominum resuscitantem Lazarum. Tunc dixit sanctus Maximianus ad eum: crede nobis, quod propter te resuscitavit nos Deus ante diem magnae resurrectionis, ut credas indubitanter, quod resurrectio mortuorum est. Vere enim resurreximus et vivimus et sicut infans est in utero matris non sentiens laesionem et vivit, sic fuimus videntes, jacentes et dormientes el non sentientes. Et his dictis videntibus cunctis inclinantes capita sua in terram obdormierunt et tradiderunt spiritus suos secundum Dei imperium. Surgens autem imperator cecidit super eos flens et deosculans eos, et cum jussisset fieri loculos aureos, in quibus mitterentur, in ipsa nocte apparuerunt imperatori dicentes, nt, sicut hactenus in terra jacuerunt et ex terra resurrexerant, ita eos dimitteret, donec dominus iterum eos resuscitarel. Jussit ergo imperator locum illum inauratis lapidibus adornari et omues episcopos resurrectionem confidentes absolvi, Quod GCOLXXII annis dormiisse dicuntur, dubium esse potest, quia anno domini CCGGXLVIH surrexerant, Decius autem regnavit uno tantum anno et tribus mensibus, scilicet anno domini GCGLII et ita nou dormierunt nisi :)6XCVI annis.
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