Seven Sleepers

Seven noble youths of Ephesos, who fled in the Decian persecution to a cave in Mount Celion. After 230 years they awoke, but soon died, and their bodies were taken to Marseilles in a large stone coffin, still shown in Victor’s church. Their names are Constantine, Dionysius, John, Maximʹian, Malchus, Martinʹian, and Serapʹion. This fable took its rise from a misapprehension of the words, “They fell asleep in the Lord”—i.e. died. (Gregory of Tours De Gloria Martyrum, i. 9.) (See Koran, xviii.: Golden Legend, etc.)