Seven Sleepers

ON THE SEVEN HOLY SLEEPERS,

MAXIMIANUS, MALCHUS, MARTINIANUS, DIONYSIUS, JOHN, SERAPION, AND CONSTANTINE.

AT EPHESUS IN ASIA MINOR.

IN THE YEAR 250.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

The Seven Sleepers, Martyrs, at Ephesus in Asia (SS.). Maximianus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Malchus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Martinianus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Dionysius, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

John, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Serapion, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Constantine, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

BY G. C.

§ I. The distinction of these Saints from others, their number, and their different names.

Paul Warnefrid, deacon of Friuli, in book 1 of the Deeds of the Lombards, chapter 4, thus makes mention of seven foreign men sleeping in the North: "I judge it not out of place to postpone for a little the order of my narration, Seven sleepers in Northern Germany, and, because my pen is still turned toward Germany, briefly to intimate a miracle, which there is held famous among all, and also certain other things. At the furthest bounds of Germany toward the northwest, on the very shore of the Ocean, a cave is seen under a projecting cliff, where seven men (uncertain from what time) rest lulled in a long slumber, with not only their bodies but even their garments so unharmed, that from this very thing, that they endure without any corruption through the courses of so many years, they are held in veneration among those same untaught and barbarous nations. These, moreover, as far as pertains to their dress, are seen to be Romans: of whom, when a certain man, stirred by cupidity, would strip one, his arms, as it is said, at once withered, and by his own punishment terrified the rest, that no one should dare to touch them further. [God] preserves them by divine providence through so many ages for a purpose to which He will bring them. Perhaps through these, at some time, because they are thought to be nothing other than Christians, those nations are to be saved by preaching." By "Germany" here understand Northern, or rather Norway, in whose bounds Cluverius, in book 3 of the Ancient Germany, chapter 41, places this location. Doubtless Warnefrid in Italy learned this miracle from his Lombards, the faith of which we leave with its first narrators.

[2] Olaus Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala, in the History of the Northern Peoples, book 1, chapter 3, reports the same prodigy from Paul the Deacon, which is now called Norway, and on this occasion makes mention, from Sigebert of Gembloux, of our seven Sleepers as distinct. But Antonius Possevinus the younger, a philosopher and physician of Mantua, seems to have confused these seven Northern Sleepers with the Ephesian ones: for in the work which he entitled Gonzaga, page 3 and following, he brings the origin of this most noble family from the far North into Italy, and, treating of Scandia, the first fatherland of the Gonzagas, inserts these things pertinent to our matter: "We take our reckoning from the times of Agimund, who was the son of Agio: for Agimund is said to have found the seven Sleepers, who, in the reign of Decius, had been shut up in a subterranean cave; but their discovery fell in the four hundred and fifty-third year of salvation, about the thirtieth of Theodosius: but from those with whom the Scandians sojourned down to Agimund were about fifty years." You see that here Possevinus mentions only the seven Ephesian Sleepers, whom he sets as shut up under Decius and found under Theodosius, while meanwhile Warnefrid asserts of his own that the time is uncertain from which they slept in the North.

[3] and Gaul Gregory of Tours, or whoever is the author of the epistle to Sulpicius of Bourges, presents us with another history of seven Sleepers, who rest in Gaul at Marmoutier. But these, in that history, are called Clement, Primus, Lætus, Theodore, Gaudens, Quiriacus, Innocentius, and are said to have been cousins of St. Martin of Tours, to whom they departed from their own fatherland, and, after a life piously spent in the monastery, all together at the same time wonderfully fell asleep in the Lord. From this placid kind of death and wonderful falling-asleep they were commonly called the seven Sleepers, as is sufficiently gathered from their Acts, which Ruinart published in the year 1699 among the works of Gregory of Tours, where these things are read: "But when they had received the Communion from the hand of abbot Aicardus, the Mass being finished, their knees bent, sound and whole, prostrate in prayer, they entered the way of all flesh, as blessed Martin had foretold, being as much strangers to the pain of death as they were alien to the corruption of the flesh. But that cell was straightway filled with so great an odor, as if a heap of many aromatics were thought to be scattered there. But abbot Aicardus, together with the brethren, receiving them not from death, but as it were from prayer, thought them not dead, but sleeping, since their faces were red as a rose, their flesh shone like snow. Wherefore he disposed them upon seats, as they had been wont to sit in their cell, and placed them so that they could be beheld by all, only the necessary things being interposed, by which they might be defended from the injury of those rushing in, between them and those entering, by the middle barriers of bars. The thresholds too lay open, that all who came might see the faces of the Saints, not as of the dead, but as of the sleeping; because, though to men they were dead, yet to God, to whom all things live, they were sleeping." Then the author describes the miracles, the sepulcher, and other things which may be examined on the 12th of November, on which they died, and are reported in the Brussels Usuardus. Whence I know not why Saussay, in his Gallican Martyrology, reported them on the 26th of September.

[4] they are to be distinguished from the Ephesian Sleepers, Cardinal Baronius thought that these seven Gallic or Turonian Sleepers were the same with the preceding seven Norwegian ones, when in his notes on the Roman Martyrology on the 27th of July he writes thus: "Something similar concerning other seven Sleepers in Germany, Paul the deacon writes in the Deeds of the Lombards, book 1, chapter 3, whom we think to be those concerning whom Gregory of Tours wrote an epistle to Sulpicius, bishop of Bourges, in which he recounts their origin; whom, however, he expressly testifies really to have died, and recites their names, which are these: Clement, Primus, Lætus, Theodore, Gaudens, Cyriacus, and Innocentius." But to me, on account of the immense distance of the lands, the names, deeds, and other circumstances of the Acts and of both narrations, these seven Turonians seem plainly different from the Northern ones, so that I cannot sufficiently marvel by what reasoning that most eminent man could confuse them. Add that John Maan, concerning the Gallic Sleepers (though he does not much defer to their Acts), in his Metropolitan Church of Tours, page 18, thus testifies: "For the rest, concerning the seven Sleepers, whose common sepulcher still today exists within the enclosure of Marmoutier in a crypt, to which a monastic chapel serves as a vestibule, fame reports that they came to Martin with the purpose of a higher and more excellent institution, and, staying with him, cultivated the monastic kind of life," etc. Whatever be the case with this history, which on the 12th of November can be examined more laboriously, certainly the seven Sleepers, both the Germanic and the Gallic, differ from the seven Ephesian Sleepers, of whom on this day we treat with Usuardus and the Roman Martyrology.

[5] According to the common opinion, in the title and elsewhere I have said that these Ephesian Martyrs were seven in number, whom some assert to have been eight, although in Assemani, vol. 1 of the Oriental Library, page 336, Dionysius, patriarch of the Jacobites, in the Syriac history of these Martyrs, expressly enumerates eight; namely Maximilianus, Jamlichus, Martelus, Dionysius, John, Serapion, Eustadianus, Antoninus. Nay, Jacob of Sarug, who flourished in the fifth century, seems also to indicate eight, when in the Syriac homily on these Saints, to be exhibited after this preliminary Commentary, no. 3, he thus speaks: "The son of the hyparch (the name of the hyparch is here not a proper one, unless I err, but an appellative, by which a prefect is signified) opened his mouth, and his seven companions." But for whatever cause that son of the prefect is perhaps not commonly numbered with the others, all writers, Greek, Latin, Arab, Ethiopian, with unanimous consent reckon only seven Ephesian Martyrs, and even the Syrians themselves in their ecclesiastical Office celebrate the same number.

[6] The names of these Martyrs are expressed differently among diverse nations: and whose names by various writers for by the Muscovites in the Slavo-Russian Menologium, which we shall cite in the following paragraph, they are so called: Maximilianus, Dionysius, Amulichus, Martinus, Antoninus, John, Marcellus. In Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, in the Arabic Annals, rendered into Latin by Pococke, vol. 1, page 388, these are their names: Maximianus, Amlichus, Dianus, Martimus, Dionysius, Antonius, John. Whether this discrepancy arises from the carelessness of the copyists, or from the property of the various idioms, I shall not easily determine. Our Rader, in the Holy Court, chapter 13, thus discourses of this change of names: "The names are not given by the Greeks the same as in the birthdays of the Martyrs among the Romans: for the Latins name Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine. The Greeks in the Menaia praise Maximilianus, Exacustodianus, Jamblichus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, and Constantine." But easily Maximilianus for Maximianus, or the contrary, could be written; in the place of Malchus, Jamblichus succeeds, in that of Serapion, Exacustodianus. Another transposition and change of the same names among the Greeks themselves I observe in the following paragraph. The remaining differences, of less moment, can easily be noted in the course of the work by the studious reader.

[7] are reported in various ways. From all the others the Ethiopian writer altogether differs, by whom, in Job Ludolf in the annotations on the Ethiopic Calendar, page 436, the same seven Martyrs are so named: Arshaledes, Diomedes, Eugenius, Dimatheus, Bronatheus, Stephanus, and Cyriacus. I suspect that by that Ethiopian are indicated the names which those Saints perhaps had before receiving baptism. This at least the anonymous Greek author indicates, in a manuscript of the Medicean library, of which we have a transcript, when, after the beginning of the Acts, concerning the changed names of six of the Martyrs he writes thus: Ἐν δὲ τῷ θείῳ λουτρῷ τοίασδε μετωνομίας ἐδέξαντο οἱ μακάριοι. Μαξιμιλιανὸς μὴν μετωνομάσθη Ἀχίλλιος· Δεμέτριος δὲ ὁ Ἰάμβλιχος, ὁ δὲ Ἐξακουστουδιανὸς Διομήδης, ὁ δὲ Ἀντωνῖνος Κυριακὸς, ὁ δὲ Μαρτῖνος Εὐγένιος, ὁ Διονύσιος δὲ τὴν τοῦ Στεφάνου κλῆσιν ἠνέγκατο. That is: The blessed received in the divine laver such a change of names: Maximilianus was named Achillius; Demetrius, Jamblichus; Exacustodianus, Diomedes; Antoninus, Cyriacus; Martinus, Eugenius; but Dionysius obtained the name of Stephen. The same I conjecture from Boninus Mombritius, who in vol. 2, in the Acts of those Martyrs, reports these things: "There were seven men in the palace of the king, chief and noble, whose names are: Achiledus, Diomedus, Eugenius, Stephanus, Probatius, Sambatus, and Cyriacus… Being divinely compunct, they flew to the grace of baptism, and, their names being changed, reborn at the sacred font, were called Maximus, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantius, Dionysius, John, Serapion." Who has here more disjointed the names, I know not. At least things somewhat similar to those of Mombritius are read in our manuscript of Saint-Omer, which is attributed to Gregory of Tours, as we shall afterward show at greater length.

* otherwise "Videris," "Videtis"

* otherwise "viaticum"

§ II. The cult from the ecclesiastical monuments of various peoples.

The Greeks celebrate these saints Famous is the memory of these Martyrs among the Greeks, who on the 4th of August and the 22nd of October solemnly keep their feast. The Typicon of St. Sabas on those two days thus briefly announces them: Τῶν ἁγίων ἑπτὰ παίδων τῶν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ. That is: Of the holy seven children at Ephesus. The Greek Menologium, which was collected by the command of the emperor Basil in the tenth century, and whose first half-year exists in the latest edition of the Italia Sacra, vol. 10, among the Ughellian anecdota, there, col. 280, reads thus: "On the same day (I know not for what cause they are here reported on the 23rd of October) the commemoration of the manifestation made of the holy seven children at Ephesus." Then there is subjoined the following compendium of the Acts: "Maximilianus, Jamblichus, Martianus, Dionysius, John, Constantine, and Antoninus, at Ephesus, on account of Christian piety brought before the emperor Decius, when they had asked time for deliberation and had obtained it, fled to the cave of a certain mountain, and there gave themselves to sleep, the entrance of the cave being blocked up. In the three hundred and seventy-second year afterward (this gross anachronism, common to several, will be discussed below), in the reign of Theodosius the younger, when heretics had dared to contrive new things in the Church by a most pernicious dogma, denying the resurrection, and that matter greatly troubled the emperor, God, that He might confirm in the minds of all a sure faith in the resurrection, the cave being opened, awakened the sleepers: of whom Jamblichus, taking a coin of Decius, went down into the city to buy provisions, as one who had slept a long while; he was recognized, and, led to the bishop, set forth the whole matter as it had happened. Therefore, when they had left the faith of the resurrection attested among all, they were again dead and carried into the cave."

[9] Another Menologium, which Canisius, Cardinal Sirleto translating, published in Latin in vol. 2 of the Ancient Reading, from page 730, in the Menologies on the 4th of August thus records the same Saints: "The birthday of the holy seven Sleepers in the city of Ephesus, Maximilianus, Exacustodianus, Jamlicus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, and Constantine." But the same Menologist, on the 22nd of October, the names being somewhat transposed, and Antoninus substituted for John, calls them not Sleepers, but brothers, in this manner: "On the same day the birthday of the holy brothers in the city of Ephesus, Maximilianus, Jamblichus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Antoninus, Exacustodianus, and Constantine." The printed Menaia on these two days have in their announcement the same transposition and change of names, which variations it is wonderful to find in the same ecclesiastical Fasti: but in both places they address those Saints by the name παίδων, that is, of children, not of brothers. A brief announcement of the same Martyrs, and nearly similar to the Typicon of St. Sabas, is contained in several Greek Synaxaria, Horologia, and other ecclesiastical monuments of that kind, which here to recount one by one I deem superfluous.

[10] The same printed Menaia, after the aforesaid transposition and change of names, and in the Menaia, expressed in red characters, on the 4th of August add these iambic verses: Τὸν ἑπτάριθμον τιμῶ χορὸν Μαρτύρων Δείξαντα ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν τῷ κόσμῳ. That is: I honor the choir of Martyrs, seven in number, / Who showed to the world the resurrection of the dead. (Latin: "I honor the seven Martyrs, who once proved that there would be new life for the dead.") Then is added the following hexameter verse, which also is read thus in the metrical Greco-Muscovite Ephemerides prefixed to vol. 1 of our May: Τῇδε τετάρτῃ νεκροέγειρτοι ξύνθανον ἑπτά. That is: On this fourth [day] the seven, raised from the dead, die together. (Latin: "On the fourth the Seven awake, and together rest.") But on the 22nd of October, after the aforementioned announcement, these verses follow: Παῖδες λιπόντες πρὸς μικρὸν μακροὺς ὕπνους, Ὕπνωσαν αὖθις τὸν μετ᾽ εἰρήνης ὕπνον. That is: The Children, having left long sleeps for a little while, / Slept again the sleep that is in peace. (Latin: "A long sleep left these Children, but a better sleep in a short time takes them in peace.") On each day, after the verses, a long history is narrated, which is not much unlike the common Acts.

[11] Doubtless the ancient cult of these seven Sleepers passed from the Greeks to other nations: and, besides the Muscovites and Ethiopians, for the Muscovites in their Slavo-Russian Menologium, which the most noble baron Sparwenfeld rendered into Latin for us, on the 4th of August thus briefly commemorate them: "Of the holy seven Youths of Ephesus." Then on the 22nd of October they thus more fully make mention of the same Saints: "Likewise of the seven holy Youths, who slept at Ephesus 372 years; but they died in the year 378, whose names are: Maximilianus, Dionysius, Amulichus, Martinus, Antoninus, John, Marcellus." The Muscovite Martyrologist, in marking the too-long slumber of three hundred and seventy-two years, blindly followed the errors of others; but I know not what he means, when he asserts that those Youths died in the year three hundred and seventy-eight. Does he understand this of the first, or of the second death? But it can fit neither, as will afterward appear. The Ethiopians and Copts repeat a brief announcement of these Martyrs in their Calendar on different days, of which repetition they do not add the cause, as may be seen in the Commentary of Job Ludolf on the Ethiopic History, page 436. Moreover, what kind of history is handed down concerning these holy Sleepers among the Ethiopians, we shall indicate below on another occasion.

[12] The Maronite Syrians The Maronite Syrians on the 7th of March celebrate the same Saints with a solemn Office, as is clear from a Syriac codex, which is preserved in the Roman library of the Maronites. Our Petrus Benedetti, to be praised at greater length below, among other things most courteously transmitted to me from Rome a great part of this Office, rendered into Latin by himself, from which I shall excerpt one or two hymns. And so the hymn at Vespers is sung thus: "Hear, ye wise, with great charity the triumphs of the seven Martyrs. In the month of March, for the love of the Son of God, they were crowned. Ducus, the impious worshiper of idols, condemned them, because they did not sacrifice to the mute images, when he saw them trust in the Savior, who is in the heavens. These indeed were they who, having gone out from Ephesus, and forsaking the world and all things contained in it with one affection and one mind, ascended to the summit of the mountain and were raised up. The hidden armor of the Holy Spirit the seven illustrious Martyrs put on. They saw Ducus the idolater, that he had girded himself to their slaughter; like eagles they flew to the top of the mountain, and, having entered the cave, hid themselves. Today the Church and her children rejoice, and on their feast sing praise. They bent their heads upon the summit of the mountain, and adored their Lord with great joy. The hard judgment cannot be told which the elect seven Martyrs endured from the judge Ducus the accursed, the idolatrous emperor, the workman of error. From Ephesus the Blessed went out and left error then flourishing in wealth. The Blessed ascended, and, having entered the cave, hid themselves from their persecutors. The age of Ducus the idolater passed away, and all idolatry ceased. The churches lay open, and the sacred edifices resounded like thunders, and the idolaters ceased, and their rule. Our Lord willed to awaken the simple Lambs from sleep. Immediately the Blessed arose, and began to sing the praises of the voice. The Church rejoiced, in which their memories are perpetually handed down."

[13] in the ecclesiastical Office Another hymn at Prime sounds thus: "Brethren, let us sing a new song on the day of the commemoration of the Children of light. I admire the seven Martyrs, about to tell their triumphs. The King of kings chose them, that they might become Martyrs of the Only-begotten. Their thought descended into the love of the Son, and in their minds they were inflamed. Then Ducus, the accursed idolater, was inflamed with anger against the Saints, and made a feast to the mute images, as he had learned from Satan. He invited the seven Martyrs to sacrifice to the unclean demons; but they prepared their minds to become victims to the King of kings. It was fitting for the simple Lambs to suffer persecution from idolatry. The blessed choir of the seven Martyrs joined battle with Satan. They truly loved God, and for Him suffered persecution. The Blessed, having gone out from Ephesus, went up to the top of the mountain, raising themselves. The wicked one roared against the Saints, like a lion thirsting for slaughter. The blessed band of the seven Martyrs escaped from his hands: they entered into the cave, and in it hid themselves from the threats of the profane Ducus. Their souls flew swiftly on high above, to the company of the spiritual ones." I pass over other things pertaining to the history, which had been excerpted from the odes of that Office, because they will recur often enough below. Meanwhile, with Father Benedetti, I suspect that those Saints are venerated by the Melkite Syrians on the 1st of September: for in an Arabic codex, which exists in the Roman college of the Maronites, after their Acts Benedetti had read that the death of these Martyrs happened on the Kalends of Ailul, that is, of September.

[14] The knowledge of these seven Sleepers seems first to have come from the East to the West in the sixth century: and the Latins in their Martyrologies, for this Gregory of Tours, book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 95, sufficiently indicates, when at the end he says that he translated their fuller Acts into Latin, a certain Syrian interpreting. For the rest, among the Latin Martyrologists the first, so far as I know, Ado, on the 27th of June thus briefly announces the memory of our Saints: "On the same day, the deeds of the seven Sleepers." The genuine text of Usuardus, on the 27th of the following month, thus expresses three of their names and the place of their combat or veneration: "At Ephesus, the birthday of the holy Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, and four others, whose deeds are had." Rabanus and Notker, following Ado in assigning the day of the cult, expressed the names of all, and perhaps from Gregory of Tours reduced their Acts to a compendium. I do not deem it necessary here to accumulate other texts of the more recent Martyrologists, since from what has been said it is sufficiently established concerning the ancient cult of those Saints. But as for the yearly day of the festivity, it is diverse among various nations and even among the Latins themselves. Petrus de Natalibus in his Catalogue, book 7, chapter 51, after the history of the Acts, thus writes concerning the yearly day of the cult: "The holy Martyrs, therefore, slept with their first slumber on the 6th of the Kalends of August; but they rose on the 3rd of the Ides of the same month, on which day their feast is solemnly kept, in the year of the Lord 448." Whichever of these be the true day, we in assigning it follow the Roman Martyrology, which on the 27th of July reads thus: "At Ephesus, the birthday of the holy seven Sleepers, Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine."

[15] The aforesaid seven Martyrs are honored with an ecclesiastical Office in various dioceses of the West, as is clear from certain Missals and Breviaries, in Missals and Breviaries. of which here to have produced one or two will suffice. In the first place, the Missal of Rouen, published by the command of archbishop and Cardinal Bourbon in the year 1585, after the Office of three Lessons in the Mass prescribes the following Collect: "Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that thy people may be prepared for the affection of full devotion by the birthdays of thy blessed Martyrs Malchus, Maximianus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine, and, their patronage deserving it, may fully receive an increase of security. Through our Lord," etc. In the ancient Breviary of Tournai was recited the collect from the Common of Martyrs, "God, who grantest us," etc. But the Breviary of Salisbury in England, which was printed at Louvain in the year 1499, prefixes to the three proper Lessons this Collect: "God, who didst magnificently crown the seven Sleepers, glorious heralds of the eternal resurrection, grant, we beseech thee, that by their prayers we may obtain the holy resurrection, which was wonderfully preshown in them. Through," etc. Whatever be the case with the truth of this resurrection, of which afterward at greater length; with Baronius in the notes on the Roman Martyrology I confidently say on this day, that both Latins and Greeks religiously and piously venerate and celebrate the anniversary solemnity of these Saints, since they suffered grievous things in the times of Decius, and truly fell asleep in the Lord. Even if what has been said hitherto suffices to establish their cult, yet the same from their posthumous glory and other monuments I shall now confirm.

* read "obstructo" (blocked up)

§ III. The posthumous glory of these Martyrs, a wonderful vision concerning them, and a miracle wrought by their patronage.

Concerning those Saints, whose bodies long survived at Ephesus, I scarcely doubt that once in the East several churches were dedicated to our Saints, which now, by the injury of the times and the tyranny of the Turks, have perished. Franciscus Richardus, a missionary of our Society among the Greeks, testifies that in the island of Sant-Erini, which lies in the Aegean sea, he saw a chapel built to these Saints. "Along the shore of the sea toward Aponomeria," he says in the French History of that island, chapter 3, "is seen a chapel built to the honor of the seven Sleepers, which is commonly called ἐκκλησία τῶν ἑπτὰ παίδων. That is: the church of the seven children." Most of our Acts at the end make mention of the temple which Theodosius the younger ordered to be built near the city of Ephesus above the bodies of these Martyrs, and whose ruins are even now beheld, as Cornelius le Brun, Jacobus Spon, and other eyewitnesses affirm in their travel-narratives. Their sacred bodies must even now rest in that place, if Rabanus foretold true, who on the 27th of June in his Martyrology concludes the synopsis of the Acts with these words: "But the truth being recognized, Marinus, bishop of the Ephesians, coming, they were freed from the hands of the violent, and, presented to the emperor Theodosius for a testimony of the future resurrection, again returned to their former place, where they shall rest until the day of the universal judgment." If Rabanus means that their bodies are to be preserved in that very place until the last day of judgment, how much is to be deferred to his prophecy, I know not. Yet that their bodies still survived there beyond the middle of the sixth century is clear from Gregory of Tours, who in book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 95, thus writes of them: "But the men, covered even today with little cloaks of silk or of linen, rest in that very place." That in the eighth century their sacred relics were wont to be shown there to pilgrims I gather from the Acts of St. Willibald, written by a contemporary nun, which we gave on the 7th of July, where in vol. 2 of that month, page 504, these things are read: "Thence sailing into Asia to the city of Ephesus, one mile along the sea; and thence they walked to that place where the seven Sleepers rest." Nay, that the same bodies of the Saints rested near Ephesus even in the eleventh century is drawn from the Life of St. Edward, king and confessor, which was published among the ten writers of English history at London in the year 1652, and from which I shall here transcribe the wonderful vision of the holy king concerning these seven Sleepers.

[17] St. Edward, king of England, Blessed Ailred or Ealred, abbot of Rievaulx in England, who flourished about the middle of the twelfth century, and whose Acts were illustrated by Bolland on the 12th of January, wrote the Life and miracles of St. Edward, and in the already cited London edition, among his other deeds, col. 395 and 396, reports the following prodigy: "I cannot sufficiently marvel what may have been the cause, that at that time, when by his royal magnificence he seemed more illustrious, when, surrounded by the retinue of his nobles, he seemed more severe, when, by more sumptuous banquets, in the estimation of the beholders, he seemed more lavish, he merited a more abundant grace of spiritual revelations; but doubtless man looks on the face, but God on the heart. He bore, indeed, a sword, but for his office: he used royal things, but for a sacrament: he walked attended by many soldiers, but for necessity: he sat aloft in the banquet, but for custom. Happy he, who so used all these things that he did not abuse them, giving his body to earthly things, and mingling his spirit with heavenly ones. Hence it is that on the day of the Lord's Resurrection, girt with the imperial robe, when the scepter adorned his right hand, and the crown his head, now fed with the flesh of the heavenly Lamb, he came to the royal table, to be refreshed rather with spiritual than with carnal banquets. For fearing, as I think, lest perchance the more fertile table, the more festive attire, the more splendid pomp should bend his mind, intent on heaven, even a little to himself, he gathered himself to himself more closely than usual, and, setting God before his eyes, esteemed all these earthly things as dung, when suddenly his countenance was made more serene than usual, and an inner gladness loosed his lips into a smile, and again, his usual gravity being resumed, he presented a darker face. Those who stood by and who sat marveled, and although, from the things which had happened, they in no way doubted that some secret had been divinely revealed to the king, yet no one dared to ask him what had happened.

[18] The banquet at last finished and the tables removed, the most blessed king enters his chamber, had a wonderful revelation, to dispose of his royal ornaments. Earl Harold, following him, and one of the bishops and one of the abbots being called, together meet the king upon this subject. Then he: 'Blessed,' he says, 'is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who hath not regarded vanities and false follies: for as much as anyone withdraws himself from vain things, so much the more closely will he cleave to the true. Behold, indeed, I, among the abundant cups and rich dishes and the splendor of the radiant metal, remembered the Lord my God, and poured out my soul within me, and, the bosom of my mind being dilated, the inner eye, suffused with a special light, stretched its rays even to the city of the Ephesians with wonderful speed, and, having advanced even to Mount Celion, it contemplated, with a most manifest expression, the property of the countenances, the size of the limbs, the quality of the garments of the holy seven Sleepers, resting in the cave. While with a luminous heart I beheld these things, my inner gladness being signified by a smile, suddenly, as I beheld, from the right side, upon which they had rested for many years, turning themselves to the left side by divine power, they signified by this change of their sides a dread omen to mortals. For from now, as is written in the Gospel, "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be pestilences and famines, and great earthquakes in places." For during these seventy years (for so much time they will repose on the left side) the Lord will visit the iniquity of His people, delivering them into the hands of the nations, that those who hate them may rule over them. For the enemies of the name of Christ will rise up against the Christians, servants will rebel against their masters, kings will lie in wait for kings, and princes for princes, and in all lands the sword, avenger of the injury of Christ, will rage.'

[19] All who heard the word were astonished, and because, placed outside the world, they had heard nothing of the seven Sleepers, on their inquiring who they were and whence, from which he truly foretold future evils, the king set forth their life, and names, and passion, and manner of falling asleep. Which being heard, counsel being taken, that they might give credence to posterity, to explore the truth of the discourse they think that the duke should send a soldier, the bishop a cleric, the abbot a monk, with the king's epistle, to be directed to the emperor of Constantinople: who, when they came to the royal city, were honorably received by the emperor. But the letters being read, his spirit exulted in joy, and he greatly congratulated them on the treasures of Greece, divinely revealed to the English. They are sent to Ephesus, and by the emperor's command, the bishop with the clergy and people precede the legates, and, they being led with aromatics into the cave, he shows the bodies, faces, and garments of the Saints, and them reposing on the left side. And, behold, a great fear rushed upon them, seeing all the signs in the Martyrs in Greece which the holy king in England, the Spirit of God teaching, had learned. And so, prayer being made and gifts offered, they return home with the highest prosperity, the Greeks exulting in the things which they had heard and seen, as had been said to them, the messengers reporting the unheard-of miracle and a sure proof of faith both to the king of the English and to the people.

[20] as various writers testify. The oracle did not deceive the king, since, he being translated to the heavenly kingdom, all the kingdoms of the earth were shaken. Syria subjected to the pagans, the monasteries destroyed, the churches razed from their foundations, all things full of funerals, by the death of the princes of the Greeks, Romans, Franks, English, and the other kingdoms disturbed. It is clear, therefore, that to the most holy king, enriched with a more ample grace of the spirit of prophecy, to whom at one and the same time both past things lay open, and present things were not hidden, future things also were nonetheless revealed. William of Malmesbury, book 2 of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, chapter 13, also narrates this wonderful vision of St. Edward, and proves more distinctly that the aforementioned prophecy of the holy king was fulfilled, in these words: "Nor did the hastening of the evils make delay, but that the Agarenes and Arabs and Turks, nations alien from Christ, having wholly laid waste Syria and Lycia and Asia Minor, and many cities of Asia Major, among which also Ephesus, and even Jerusalem itself, invaded the Christians. Then also, Manichetes, the emperor of Constantinople, being dead, Diogenes and Michael and Bucinatius and Alexius in turn thrust themselves from the empire, of whom the last, enduring even to our times, left his son John as heir." Ranulph Higden, who among fifteen other writers of English history was published in print by Thomas Gale at Oxford in the year 1691, book 6 of his Polychronicon, in the cited edition, page 283, reduced the same history to a compendium, and, calling the emperor of Constantinople of that time Nicetas, thus briefly writes of the fulfilled prophecy of St. Edward: "And soon after the Saracens and Turks rose up, occupying Syria, Asia Minor, and Jerusalem, and soon after the emperor Henry the third died, and Henry, king of the Franks, died poisoned, and a comet star on the 8th of the Kalends of May appeared, as it were through the whole world, for seven continuous days." Whatever be the case with this prodigious history, which I wonder was passed over by our Alford in the Ecclesiastical Annals of Britain, we leave its credence with the already-praised authors.

[21] To these I subjoin a miracle, which Reinerus, a monk who in the twelfth century flourished in the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liège, Reinerus, a monk of Liège, writes to have befallen him by the patronage of the holy seven Sleepers, in Bernard Pez, in the latest Thesaurus of Anecdota, vol. 4, part 3, col. 38 and 39, thus: "Now, my flesh being consumed, my bone had cleaved to my skin; now, according to the Prophet, the Lord had made old my skin and my flesh, and had broken my bones. My appetite for food had wholly failed, and my veins, destitute of juice, denied me sleep to steal upon me. To God, therefore, dripped the eye of my soul, because His wraths passed over me, and His terrors troubled me: for the soul is both watered with its own tears, and, dissolved by breaking, and affected by a certain ineffable sense, by most tender weeping, by strongest groaning, moves the very bowels of the Paraclete Spirit, and merits consolation. There came one of the brethren to visit me, who advised that I should have the names of the holy seven Sleepers written on a little slip and bound about my head: for by this remedy of pious faith the faculty of sleeping was sometimes restored to the sick. I applied faith, did as he had enjoined, and now in some way I heard with my inner ear: 'Thy faith shall make thee whole.' For suddenly, through an ecstasy of mind, I saw myself to be in a certain royal hall, which an inestimable light, an incredible odor, suffused: for its lamp, its glory, its exultation was that true one, that uniquely desirable, blessed, and adorable majesty of the Trinity. But indeed the intemperate and forward mouth must be bridled, lest, unhappy, I burden my miseries too heavily. Let it suffice to have said this only in thanksgiving, that among the choirs of the purple-robed and the white-robed who were present, I recognized those Saints, gloriously distinguished with golden crowns and reddening purple. There new, there most sweet canticles resounded, and the angelic organs modulated that responsory: 'These are the Saints who for the testament of God delivered their bodies, and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.'

[22] But, returned to myself, I turned my astonished eyes about, [by the intercession of the seven Sleepers he recovers his health in a wonderful manner.] almost ignorant where I was. Meanwhile a familiar brother sat by my little bed, who, when he earnestly asked why I so looked about, since confidence is owed to proven friendship, I related the vision, which I soon experienced was not frivolous. So my limbs were weakened by languor, so constricted by pain as if by chains, that for seven days I had been able neither to rise nor to stand except by another's support. But by the sight of that strong one, that merciful one, who in the blood of His testament sent forth His prisoners from the pit in which there is no water, I was so loosed, so strengthened, that then I rose without any prop, sought the oratory with the aforesaid brother, and poured out thanks with my whole affection. So I was afterward restored to health, and offered to the holy seven Sleepers a slight indeed and altogether unequal, but yet heartfelt, gift of praise and thanksgiving, namely a melody composed about them. But indeed if anyone shall be offended, if anyone shall attribute it to boasting, that I write such things, will he wish to forbid a wretched man to remember the mercies of the Lord? No well-disposed man accuses a simple and pious intention. It is good indeed to hide the secret of a king, but to reveal and confess the works of God is honorable. For the rest, it belongs to a fearful mind not to be high-minded, but to consent to lowly things, since to the pious supernal revelations are instruments not of vice, but of virtue. But what does it profit the impious, like Balaam, like Nebuchadnezzar, to have seen divine things? The sun confounds bleared eyes. Not holy vision, but holy action merits God."

§ IV. Various compendia of the Acts are exhibited.

Gregory of Tours The first among the Latins, unless I err, Gregory of Tours, book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 95, thus briefly narrates the history of these Saints: "But of the seven brothers who rest at Ephesus, this is the account. In the time of the emperor Decius, when persecution was being carried on against the Christians, seven Men were seized, and led before the prince. Their names are these: Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantinus, Dionysius, John, Serapion; who, tried in various ways to make them yield, in no way consented. But the emperor, on account of their elegance, that they might not perish in a moment, grants a space of deliberation. But they shut themselves in one cave, and there dwelt for many days. Yet one of them went out, and bought provisions, and furnished what was necessary. But the emperor returning to the same city, they asked of the Lord that He would deign to rescue them from this peril, and, prayer being made, prostrate on the ground, they fell asleep. And when the emperor had learned that they were staying in this cavern, by the nod of God he ordered the mouth of the cave to be blocked with great stones, saying: 'Let them perish there, who would not sacrifice to our gods.' While this was being done, a certain Christian, writing their names and martyrdom on a leaden tablet, secretly enclosed it in the entrance of the cavern, before it was blocked up.

[24] a compendium of the Acts But after the courses of many years, when, peace being given to the churches, Theodosius the Christian had obtained the empire, there arose the unclean heresy of the Sadducees, who deny the future resurrection. Then a certain citizen of Ephesus, while he purposes to make folds for his sheep beside that very mountain, and rolls away stones to fit together their enclosures, ignorant of what was being done within, laid open its entrance; yet he did not know the secret which was held within. But the Lord sent into the seven Men the spirit of life, and they rose, and, thinking that they had slept only one night, sent one boy of them to buy food. And when, coming upon the gate of the city, he had seen the sign of the glorious cross, and had heard the people swear by the name of Christ, he was astonished, and, the coins being produced which he had from the time of Decius, he is seized by the merchant, who says to him: 'Because thou hast found treasures hidden of old.' But he denying, is led to the bishop and judge of the city. And when he was accused by these, necessity compelling him, he revealed the hidden mystery, and led them to the cave in which the Men were.

[25] And when the bishop entered, he found the leaden tablet, on which all things which they had endured he had written were held written: and, having spoken with them, they announced this by a rapid course to the emperor Theodosius. But he, coming, adored them prostrate on the earth, who used such a colloquy with the same prince: 'There has arisen, glorious Augustus, a heresy which endeavors to overthrow the Christian people from the promises of God, so that they say the resurrection of the dead does not take place. Therefore, that thou mayest know that, according to the apostle Paul, we shall all be presented before the tribunal of Christ, for this cause the Lord ordered us to be raised up, and to speak these things to thee. See, therefore, that thou be not seduced and shut out from the kingdom of God.' Theodosius the emperor, hearing these things, glorified the Lord, who did not permit His people to perish. But the Men, again prostrate on the earth, fell asleep: and when Theodosius the emperor would fashion sepulchers of gold for them, he was forbidden through a vision, that he should not do it. But the Men, covered even today with little cloaks of silk or of linen, rest in that very place; which their Passion, which, a certain Syrian interpreting, we translated into Latin, more fully unfolds." From these last words I gather that Gregory of Tours wrote longer Acts of these Saints, concerning which I shall afterward note some things. I here pass over Vincent of Beauvais, book 20 of the Historical Mirror, chapter 32, Petrus de Natalibus in the Catalogue of the Saints, book 7, chapter 51, and other more recent Latins, who made mention of the same holy Sleepers.

[26] Photius of Constantinople in the ninth century saw other Acts of the same Saints, which also Photius of Constantinople, which in his Library, codex 253, he thus abridged: "I read from the martyrdom of the seven Children, whence these things summarily described: The martyrdom of the seven children, Maximilianus, Jamblichus, Martimus, Dionysius, Exacustodianus, Antoninus, and John. That these seven, patricians and well known, because they embraced and enlarged Christian piety, were led before Decius the tyrant, the Roman empire being changed into a tyranny by contempt of God; and that, being led, they gave an excellent confession. That, business dragging the emperor elsewhere, security being found, they fled into a cave in the mountain near Ephesus, and were served in the things which bodily necessity required by one of them, who is said to have been Jamblichus. A little after the emperor, their flight and the place where they were, and their manner of living being explored, full of anger, ordered the mouth of the cave to be blocked, that the Martyrs might be killed by hunger.

[27] Then after three hundred and seventy-two years, a little differing from the others, Theodosius, from the third generation, taking up and administering the royal dignity, and Maro being bishop of Ephesus (O new spectacle, unusual to nature!), those excellent Victors of Christ, the Martyrs, appeared, their life recovered, to whom, approaching, the emperor and the bishop (for him, who was farther off, he also called to that wonderful spectacle), with whom also many others fell at their knees, and were held worthy of their prayers and blessing. The emperor and the archbishop sat with them, and, a mutual colloquy being held, the things which had happened to the Martyrs were confirmed, and rendered certain: for in the sight of Caesar and of those present, in that very cavern in which they had lain, they rested together, so that their death was clearly manifest to all, and their common migration from this life, before unknown. Theodosius had then reigned thirty-eight years, when God willed this greatest miracle to be shown to the world.

[28] That season then demanded such a prodigy. A certain Theodore (would that it had not been so) was bishop of the Aegeans. inserted it into his Library. He, by I know not what reasoning, swallowed up in the mire of infidelity, vomited forth foul-smelling words, denying the resurrection of the dead, and involving many with his followers in the same error. This miracle divulging into all the earth a clear testimony of the resurrection, he and whatever gentiles remained, partly, confounded with shame, fell silent, partly conceived a sure and firm hope of the resurrection. But the manner in which the cave was opened is this: Adolius, to whom then that mountain belonged, in which the cave was hewn, compelled his servants to build a stable for cattle, and the matter was accomplished within two days, and the house built, the stones being removed which had blocked and fortified the mouth of the cave, and thus the cave was opened. The Martyrs lay there, revived by the unheard-of judgment of God, and send Jamblichus, who had once been wont to minister to them, to buy and bring food: who, having entered the city of Ephesus, is seized on account of the coins which he produced, as if he had dug up an ancient treasure: and thence the miracle of the Martyrs penetrated to the ears of all, and was set forth as a thing to be wondered at." Afterward Simeon Metaphrastes, or whoever is the writer of the longer Acts, adorned the same history with several episodes, as after this preliminary Commentary it will be permitted to see.

[29] The same history was known to Mahomet, and other Arabic writers, Most truly here at the end Photius says that this miracle of the Martyrs came to the ears of all: for already from the seventh century it was so widely spread among the Arabs, that the impious Mahomet himself inserted it into his fabulous Koran, and its interpreters contaminated the same history with insipid fables. This Renaudot taught me, who in the history of the Alexandrian patriarchs, published at Paris in the year 1713, on the occasion of the patriarch Dionysius, page 38 and 39, thus writes: "The history of the seven Sleepers is also assigned to the time of Dionysius (he ascended the Alexandrian chair in the year 248), which not only the Christian Arabs, but the Muhammadans believe, and adorn with wonderful colors. It is reported without any notable difference of circumstances by Eutychius, Elmacin, Abulfaragius, Makrizi, the Chronicon. All at last, even the Muhammadans, assert that they suffered under Decius, and among them the author of the compendium of universal Persian history, whose title is Mogemal Toüarich, as many others, and, besides others, the most celebrated Emir-cond, and his epitomator Cond-Emir. Nor is it wonderful, since the impostor Muhammad himself inserted that history, such as it was circulated in the mouth of the common people, into the Koran: for in it the chapter which is called OF THE CAVE is about it; whence he calls them 'Ashab Elkehaf,' those who lay hidden in the cave. To one reading those absurdities it at once appears that they were described from various fables which were circulated in the seventh century, not from any suitable author. Nor content with these, the Muhammadans added others: for they add a dog as companion, which was changed into a man, of which many things are said by the poets: for these ἄπιστα — that is, incredible things — affect them in a wonderful manner. But since the impostor himself doubts both of the number of the Sleepers and of the time during which they slept in the cave, much more the commentators. Not the least of them, Hucein, who wrote a fairly accurate Persian paraphrase, relates the deed as done under Decius, that is, in the reign of the emperor Decius, those Martyrs being natives of Ephesus, of the chief nobility: the mountain into which they withdrew he calls Betahalos, as others Chaos; each of which words is nothing.

[30] among whom Eutychius, Of these Arabs it will be worthwhile to hear Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, in the Arabic Annals, which Edward Pococke translated into Latin, and took care to have printed in Arabic-Latin at Oxford in the year 1658. He, therefore, before the middle of the tenth century, reports the same history, certain circumstances being added and changed, in the already cited edition, vol. 1, page 388, thus: "By that Decius the Christians suffered a grievous persecution and great evils, while he slew innumerable of them. … The emperor Decius also, taking seven boys of the sons of the magnates of Ephesus, set them over his wardrobe, whose names are: Maximianus, Amlichus, Dianus, Martimus, Dionysius, Antonius, John. These seven Youths, since they did not worship the idols, this was made known to the king by informers. Wherefore, enraged, he ordered them to be cast into prison: then, having set out for the army, he dismissed them until he should return. The emperor, therefore, having set out from the city, all things which they had being distributed in alms, having gone to a great mountain, called Chaos, on the eastern part of Ephesus, they hid themselves in a certain great cave which was in it: whence some one of them daily entered the city in disguise, that he might hear what men said of them, and, provisions being procured for them, returning, might report to them. When, therefore, to the emperor, returned and asking about them, it was announced that they had been in the mountain in a cave, he ordered the entrance of the cave to be blocked, that they might die there. But God sent upon those seven Youths a sleep, in which, like the dead, they slept. But a certain one of his officers, having taken a leaden sheet, inscribed their history, and what had happened to them with the emperor Decius, which he then enclosed in a brazen chest; and, that being left in the cave, he blocked its door.

[31] Then, in the same vol. 1, page 531, he thus sets forth their resuscitation: patriarch of Alexandria "Moreover, in the eighth year of the reign of Theodosius the great, appeared those Boys who, fleeing from king Dacius, had hidden in a cave in the city of Ephesus: and this because, after a long interval of time, when shepherds in passing were wont to move from their place the bricks by which the entrance of the cave had been blocked, it had been made open like a door. The Boys, therefore, awakened, thinking that they had slept only one night, said to their companion, who was wont to buy food for them: 'Go, procure food for us, and inquire what the emperor Dacius is doing.' He, having gone out to the gate of the cave, when he beheld the ruins of the building constructed there, was ignorant what this was. Rising, however, he set out, until he came to the gate of the city of Ephesus, above which, beholding a great cross placed, this also disapproving within himself, he said: 'I think I am sleeping.' He began, therefore, to wipe his eyes and to look about to the right and to the left, whether he could see anything known to him; and when he beheld nothing such, confused he stopped, considering these things within his mind: 'Perhaps I have strayed from the way, or perhaps this city is not Ephesus.' But having entered the city, he handed the coin which he had to a baker, that he might buy bread. The baker, beholding a man of foreign dress, frightened and consternated with fear, having coins on which the effigy of the emperor Dacius was engraved, ignorant what this was, suspecting that he had found a treasure, said: 'Whence is that coin of thine?' To which he answering nothing, he called out to men: of whom a great company being gathered about him, and addressing him, when he made them no reply, they led him away to the patrician prefect of the city, named Antipater, who also addressed him and threatened him. He, however, answered nothing.

[32] There came also to him Marcus, bishop of the city, who addressed him and got no reply. He, therefore, that he might terrify him, said: 'Unless thou speak to us, and declare whence that coin was thine, we will punish thee with death.' Yet he did not answer, namely refusing to speak from fear of the emperor Dacius, as if he still lived (for he still thought that he survived among the living). They afflicted him, therefore, with blows, whose pain when he felt, he said: 'Where is king Dacius?' They answering that the emperor Dacius was dead, and that many kings after him had held the empire, and had obtained the faith of Christ, and that he who now reigned was Theodosius the Great: then, fear being removed, he narrated all things which had befallen him. Accompanying him, therefore, to the cave, where they beheld his companions, and also found the brazen chest, and enclosed in it the leaden sheet, on which was described their history, and what had happened to them with the emperor Dacius, Tadusus, the patrician of the emperor Dacius, committing it to letters. Rapt by these things into the highest admiration, they wrote letters to king Theodosius, by which they made him certain of these things: who, therefore, having mounted a post-horse, seeking the city of Ephesus, both saw them there and conversed with them. But three days after, when he entered to them into the cave, he found them already dead. He ordered, therefore, that they should not be brought forth thence, but buried in the cave itself; and over them he built a church, which was distinguished by their name, and a feast instituted in their honor is celebrated on that day every year. Then king Theodosius returned to Constantinople. Now from the time when they fled from the emperor Dacius, to the time when they again appeared and died, according to that which we read in the history of their martyrdom, are three hundred and seventy-two years." Note here that no word is made by Eutychius of the heresy which denied the resurrection of bodies, of which, however, the anonymous Arab writer, who is preserved in the Roman library of the Maronite college, makes mention, and from whom I now subjoin another compendium of the Acts.

[33] as in the Roman codex of the Maronites The above-praised Father Petrus Benedetti, from an Arabic codex which for the use of the Melkite Syrians contains various Acts of the Saints, cutting off those things which contributed nothing to the knowledge of the matter, excerpted the following synopsis of the same history, which in Latin sounds thus: "Ducianus (so the author everywhere calls Decius), having entered Ephesus, published an edict against the Christians, and all the inhabitants were ordered to assemble to the solemn sacrifice of the gods; among whom also the seven Boys, who then held a most honorable place in the court of Ducianus, being accused by their comrades, are called by the emperor to examination. Refusing to worship the idols, they are stripped of their court attire. The emperor, wishing to pursue the journey begun through the provinces, deferred the cause of the Martyrs to his return. Meanwhile he exhorts them to come to their senses. The Martyrs, constant in their purpose, go up from the city to a neighboring mountain, distant two miles. Thence Meletius, sent to buy provisions, his garment changed with a beggar's, dissembling his person, enters the city: who, when he had learned that the emperor had returned thither, and was vexing their kinsmen, that they might produce as guilty those whom he had learned had fled; at that news, trembling, he returns to his companions, and from the things which he had bought sets out a supper. Afterward all give themselves to rest. This being learned, Ducianus orders the cavern to be blocked. Two Christians cast the history of the Martyrs, engraved on leaden tablets, within the raised enclosure.

[34] an anonymous Arab, After these things, when, Theodosius reigning, a controversy about the resurrection of the dead had emerged, and the emperor asked of God that the question be settled by some sign, it happened that a shepherd, thinking to make an enclosure for his flock, came to the cavern in which the blessed Martyrs had hidden themselves, and thence gathered stones for his use. On that occasion, the door of the cave being laid open, the Martyrs, who had slept for three hundred and nine years, being awakened, send Meletius back to Ephesus to procure supplies. He, accused of the crime of found treasure, is led to the praetor, and, brought back by him to the cavern, shows his companions. In this manner the matter at last being learned, both from the word of the Martyrs, and from the writing found in the entrance of the cave, and immediately reported to the emperor Theodosius, he comes to Ephesus, and addresses the Martyrs: who, he being present, pray to be snatched from the hardships of this life, and are heard. Theodosius orders a temple to be raised at the same cave, and, warned through a vision by the holy Martyrs, took care that their bodies be buried there." From the closing of the Acts, in which the author assigns the death of these Martyrs to the Kalends of September, Benedetti conjectures that those Acts were composed in Syria, by a certain Melkite, because the Greeks celebrate the yearly memory of the same Saints on the 4th of August, and the Maronite Syrians on the 7th of March, as I noted before.

[35] Finally, even the inhabitants of Ethiopia are not ignorant of the deeds of these seven Sleepers, and an Ethiopian writer in Job Ludolf, as Job Ludolf testifies in the annotations on the sacred Fasti of the Ethiopic church, page 436: for there he affirms that he possesses a relation about them, written in Ethiopic in manuscript, whose sum is, that in that great persecution of the emperor Decius those seven Boys of Ephesus hid themselves in a cave, and that their parents betrayed this, out of fear of the torments, to Decius threatening, unless they should indicate where they were. Therefore, it being learned that they lay hidden in a cave, the tyrant ordered it to be blocked with huge stones. When, therefore, they were held for dead by their friends, Theodore and Macedonius committed the deed to writing, as the Acts of the Martyrs. But they meanwhile, until the last times of Theodosius the younger, for about two hundred years placidly slept: which time being elapsed, God awakening them, being roused, when they believed that they had slept only one night, they sent Diomedes (the Greeks call him Jamblichus, the Arabic codex just cited Meletius, the Latins Malchus) secretly into the city to buy provisions, where, being recognized from the now antiquated money, the whole matter was thence detected. If Ludolf's interpretation be faithful, the Ethiopian writer prudently avoided the anachronism into which many Greeks, Syrians, and Arabs fell, when they extended the time of the slumber to three hundred and more years. But these and other circumstances of the various Acts must now be discussed.

§ V. The diverse circumstances of the Acts are reported.

From the compendia of the Acts already given it is clear that there is a twofold opinion of the authors concerning the manner of the slumber, Besides the two opinions concerning the manner of the resuscitation, from which these Martyrs are commonly called Sleepers: for some indicate that those seven Saints from the time of the emperor Decius until the times of Theodosius the younger really died, and, revived, appeared to confirm the faith of the resurrection; but others hint that during so great a space of time they only slept. Besides the writers already exhibited, Constantine Manasses in the Chronic Breviary, which was published among the Byzantine historians at Paris in Greek-Latin in the year 1655, page 56, delivers the latter opinion in these words: "For the rest, when the emperor Theodosius held power, those seven Youths, most enduring martyrs, awoke from a very long sleep and were beheld by the people. For, to avoid the fury of Decius, they had betaken themselves into a native cave, situated not far from the city of Ephesus, and there, lulled in a heavy and long sleep, had rested. But awakened at this time and recognized by the faithful, together both by them and by the emperor, held in great honor, they were again seized by an inextinguishable and final slumber." Theophanes in the Chronography, also printed in Greek-Latin at Paris in the year 1655, thus more briefly and obscurely mentions this wonderful sleep, page 76: "In this same year a prodigy worthy of admiration was heard of at Ephesus; namely, of the holy seven Boys, who were raised from the sleep in which they had remained buried together for a hundred and eighty-four years." Nearly the same has George Cedrenus in his Compendium of histories, vol. 1 of the Paris edition, page 338, except that he says they slept only a hundred and seventy years. Metaphrastes and certain others, reported in the preceding paragraph, interpret the sleep of true death.

[37] which Baronius reports, The most eminent Baronius in the notes on the Roman Martyrology on this day thus reports each opinion: "But why these were called Sleepers, a twofold reason is brought. The one, that these Martyrs consummated their martyrdom in the times of Decius, shut within a cave, and at last, the mouth of the cave being unbarred, their bodies being found, they had appeared again, as if revived; and were called Sleepers according to the customary usage of speaking of divine scripture, by which it was wont to call those who piously and religiously ended their life sleepers. The other, that the same, from the times of Decius until the last times of Theodosius the younger, shut within the cave, seized by sleep, really slept for about two hundred years." But the most eminent man seems more inclined to the former opinion, as at the end of the notes, after certain difficulties proposed against this prodigious history, he sufficiently indicates. If either opinion were to be chosen by me, I should prefer with Baronius to understand this slumber of death, according to the phrase of holy Scripture, which sometimes addresses the dead by the name of sleepers. At least that explanation is more apt for those who will have it that these Saints appeared alive, to prove the resurrection of the flesh. But I define nothing, as neither afterward shall I pass judgment on the truth of this history, concerning which it will suffice me to have set forth the arguments on both sides in another's words.

[38] and a gross anachronism More freely and easily can judgment be passed on the chronological error which, concerning the length of the slumber, crept into very many copies of the Acts, as especially in the preceding paragraph could be observed. Besides Photius, Eutychius, and the anonymous Arab, who there wrongly assign to the sleep or death of those Saints more than three hundred years, the same manifest anachronism Mahomet delivers in his fabulous Koran, where, in Sura 28, treating of these Sleepers, he thus writes: "But the space of the slumber of the aforesaid in the cavern was 360 years, known indeed to God, whose are the secrets of heaven and earth." Nay, I conjecture that this chronological error is more ancient than that impostor, from the Syriac sermon of Jacob of Sarug, who, according to Assemani, vol. 1 of the Oriental Library, page 289, flourished about the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth, where, after this Commentary, no. 10, he introduces a certain citizen of Ephesus thus answering one of these seven Sleepers concerning Decius: "He of whom thou hast spoken died a very long time ago; and according to the number and reckoning of the Greeks three hundred and seventy-two years are computed to have flowed from that emperor." Hence probably the same error passed to the Office and Synaxarium of the Syrians, and to other writers. But who could easily say whether that error is to be ascribed to the first author, or to an ancient copyist, whom others blindly followed? However it be, the most learned Assemani, in the volume just cited, page 338, after several examples of this anachronism, thus concludes: "Yet these errors of chronology in no way harm the truth of the history. But in the Syriac Acts, which exist in Dionysius, and are described by Metaphrastes almost word for word, no note of time is read except the reign of Theodosius the younger and the episcopate of Maris or Memnon."

[39] But, you will say, how many years, then, elapsed between the persecution of Decius and the resuscitation of these Martyrs? a fixed year This is the work, this the labor. There is, indeed, sufficient agreement among the authors concerning the year of the Decian persecution, which Pagi and other more exact chronologists commonly set at the two hundred and fiftieth of Christ. But they most differ among themselves in assigning the year in which this marvelous resuscitation happened: for Theophanes, reported above, says that they slept for a hundred and eighty-four years, and so judged that it was done about the year of Christ 434, as will be manifest to one calculating. But Cedrenus thinks that it happened fourteen years earlier, since he assigns only a hundred and seventy years to their sleep. Dionysius, patriarch of the Jacobites, refers their wonderful apparition to the year of the Greeks 736, that is, of Christ 425. The Vatican Syriac codex, Assemani testifying, places the same in the year of the Greeks 748, or of Christ 437. But Sigebert defers that history even to the year of Christ 447. Others indeterminately set that these Martyrs, revived, appeared in the last times of the Theodosian empire. Others, finally, choose others, so that here it may truly be said: As many heads, so many opinions.

[40] Let us hear the most learned Assemani, who in vol. 1 of the Oriental Library, page 338, thus discourses of this diverse chronology: of that prodigious history, "Twelve years after (namely after the year of the Greeks 736 or of Christ 425, which Dionysius had assigned above) it is narrated to have been done in the Vatican Syriac codex XXXIX, page 44, whose words we shall describe below; namely in the year of the Greeks 748, of Christ 437, in which, however, the same Memnon still ruled the church of Ephesus. The Greeks in the Menologium refer it to the thirty-eighth year of Theodosius: Cedrenus to the twenty-third year of the same. But since there is a twofold epoch of the Theodosian reign, one from the year 402, in which he was created Augustus by his father Arcadius, a year after his birth; the other from the year 408, in which, his father being dead, he took up the empire of the East at eight years old; we prefer to follow Dionysius and the praised Vatican codex, in which the certain year of that apparition is set down: and accordingly Sigebert is not to be heard, who protracts the history of these Martyrs to the year 447, since in that year neither Memnon, nor Stephen, but Bassian was bishop of Ephesus. Hence it is clear that they remained in the cave a hundred and seventy-five, or eighty-seven years, since the persecution of Decius, according to Pagi, began in the year of Christ 250, or 252 according to Baronius." This year of Baronius is now everywhere rejected, as is known to the learned. For the rest, what is here said of the bishops of Ephesus will receive greater light from the things which we shall afterward report.

[41] and other circumstances of the same differ. Eutychius of Alexandria differs from the others in narrating the occasion on which the entrance of the cave was opened, when above, no. 31, he thus reports it: "After a long interval of time, when shepherds in passing were wont to move from their place the bricks by which the entrance of the cave had been blocked, it was made open like a door." Most others say that it was done on the occasion of a citizen of Ephesus, who was preparing folds for his sheep beside the mountain. Photius of Constantinople calls the bishop of Ephesus, under whom this prodigy was done, Marus; but Eutychius names him Marcus; Metaphrastes calls him Stephen; and others, finally, do not express the name. Gregory of Tours delivers that the deeds of these Martyrs were made known to posterity in this manner: "A certain Christian, writing their names and martyrdom on a leaden tablet, secretly enclosed it in the entrance of the cavern, before it was blocked up." But Eutychius thus sets it forth: "But a certain one of his (namely Decius') officers, having taken a leaden sheet, inscribed their history, and what had happened to them with the emperor Decius, which he then enclosed in a brazen chest, and, that being left in the cave, blocked its door." The Arabic codex indicates that two did this: "Two Christians," says the anonymous Arab, "cast the history of the Martyrs, engraved on leaden tablets, within the raised enclosure." Nay, the Ethiopian writer reveals the names of those two, when he affirms that Theodore and Macedonius committed the deed, as the Acts of the Martyrs, to writing. Concerning the diverse names of these Martyrs we have said enough above. The remaining discrepancies of less moment, which occur in these Acts, the learned reader will easily observe.

§ VI. The manuscript and printed copies of the longer Acts are reviewed.

Among the writers of the Acts will be published first Jacob of Sarug Besides the writers who made mention of the deeds of the seven Sleepers, and whose compendia we exhibited in § IV, various authors composed longer Acts of the same Martyrs, an enumeration of whom must now be made. But that some order may be kept in reviewing them, we shall begin from the more ancient and by name known. It is not to be doubted that the Greeks committed that history to writing, as domestic to them, before other peoples. Yet among all whom we have hitherto known, the most ancient is Jacob of Sarug, bishop in Mesopotamia, to whom Assemani, vol. 1 of the Oriental Library, chapter 27, page 283, vindicates the title of saint, and of whose age he thus concludes there, page 289, from his Syriac Life: "St. Jacob, therefore, was born, according to this author, in the year of the Greeks 763, of Christ 452. Examined by the bishops in the year of the Greeks 783, of Christ 472. In the following years he began to publish his writings. In the year of the Greeks 814, of Christ 503, now made a presbyter, he sent exhortatory letters to the people of the Euphrates, mentioned in the Chronicle of Joshua. Besides, he lamented the destruction of Amida in a mournful poem, and a few years before had published poems on the locusts, of which treat Joshua in the place cited and Gregory Abulpharagius in the History of the Dynasties at the eleventh year of the emperor Anastasius. In the year of the Greeks 830, of Christ 519, he obtained the episcopate of Batnae of Sarug. At last, in the year of the Greeks 833, of Christ 521, on the 29th day of November, he departed from this light." Assemani proves this chronology there at length, and refutes the contrary opinions of certain persons. From these things, therefore, it is clear that Jacob of Sarug lived very nearly to the time of the prodigious revelation of these Saints.

[43] When afterward in the praised Assemani, in the volume just cited, page 335, no. 221, among the works of Jacob of Sarug I read the title "Of the Children of Ephesus," from a Syriac codex; and understood that a Syriac homily concerning them exists in the Nitrian codex XIII, which Assemani had brought with other precious codices from Syria to the City, a desire came upon me of obtaining so ancient a writer of the Acts, by whom I hoped this prodigious history would be not a little illustrated. Wherefore I at once wrote to Rome to the above-praised Petrus Benedetti, a most obliging priest of our Society, by nation a Maronite Syrian, whose ready service my associates had at other times experienced, that he would deign to render this little work of Jacob of Sarug into Latin. The obsequious man most courteously transmitted to me the Latin interpretation of the Syriac homily, written in his own hand; nay, he added besides a part of the Syriac Office, and a synopsis of the Acts, abridged from an Arabic codex, which I have exhibited above. Now this new monument of venerable antiquity (its title, according to Benedetti, is this: "The sermon of Jacob the doctor concerning the Children of Ephesus") will be published in print in the first place after this Commentary. But although this homily in Syriac is metrical, yet I did not judge that in our edition line should be scrupulously rendered for line, both because this contributes nothing to the substance of the matter, and because of the meter the elegance of the meter is not perceived in the prose discourse of another idiom.

[44] Next to Jacob of Sarug in age (at least among the writers of the Acts whose knowledge has come to us) is Gregory of Tours, then Gregory of Tours from the manuscript of Saint-Omer, who confesses that he received the wonderful history of these seven Sleepers from the Syrians, when he thus concludes the compendium of the Acts, reported above from no. 23: "Which their Passion, which, a certain Syrian interpreting, we translated into Latin, more fully unfolds." In the first place, from this closing it is clear that Gregory drew his narration from a Syriac source. Besides, from the same closing it appears that a fuller history of these Martyrs was written by Gregory. This last Ruinart also notes, when in his Paris edition of Gregory of Tours, col. 828, he thus notes on his mentioned closing: "It is had from Simeon Metaphrastes in Surius on the 27th of July; but that it is different from that which Gregory translated into Latin, is manifest even from this alone, that the names there are reckoned otherwise than in Gregory. We found another in manuscripts, in which the names, as here Gregory reckons them, are had; but since it is uncertain whether it be the very one which Gregory translated, and it has nothing new, to publish it would have been superfluous." If this manuscript was found among the works of Gregory of Tours, or bore his name, it was not superfluous to publish it. Nay, even if both these conditions were lacking, I should have wished to see it published, that I might compare it with our transcript of Saint-Omer, which at the end attributes the Acts of these Martyrs to Gregory thus: "Here ends the Passion of the holy Martyrs, the seven Sleepers, at Ephesus; translated into Latin by Gregory the bishop, John the Syrian interpreting, which is observed on the sixth of the Kalends of August." Similar to this our manuscript is the edition of Mombritius, if you except the just-mentioned indication of the writer and certain variations of small moment. However it be, we on the faith of our transcript ascribe this little work to Gregory of Tours, and shall subject it to the press after the Syriac Acts of Jacob of Sarug.

[45] and finally Simeon Metaphrastes from Surius In the third place will be reprinted the longer Acts of the same Saints, which Surius and others everywhere ascribe to Metaphrastes. These, from the edition of Surius on the 27th of July, will again be printed here, that the curious reader may more easily see, from a collation with the other Acts, how Metaphrastes (if you should contend that some other Greek is the author of this fuller history, I shall not resist) or certain Greek writers like him are wont to enlarge and adorn the deeds of the Saints. Nor should another anonymous Greek yield to Metaphrastes, whose manuscript Acts our Predecessors excerpted from the Medicean library of the king of France: for that writer, whose age we are ignorant of, besides other things common with Metaphrastes, at the end of the Acts asserts that St. Cyril of Alexandria, by the command of the emperor Theodosius, came from Alexandria to Ephesus, that he might see this prodigy, and converse with these holy Martyrs. Certainly it is wonderful that all the other biographers were silent about it, and that Cyril himself, if he was an eyewitness of this miracle, nowhere in his writings made mention of it. We do not judge that this inventor of new episodes should, by useless labor, be published in Greek-Latin, since he narrates most things similar to the others, and certain variations of some moment can easily be observed in the Annotations to the Acts of Metaphrastes.

[46] the Dionysius, patriarch of the Jacobites, being omitted, Before the middle of the ninth century Dionysius, the Antiochene patriarch of the Jacobites, wrote Syriac Acts of the same Martyrs, of whose deeds, writings, and death Assemani, vol. 2 of the Oriental Library, pages 98, 344, 348, and elsewhere often, makes mention. When from this work of Assemani I had first drawn that knowledge, I desired to see the lucubration of Dionysius itself, to render which into Latin our praised Benedetti offered his most ready service. But afterward I changed my counsel, when in the same Library, vol. 1, page 338, I had read that these Syriac Acts of Dionysius were described by Metaphrastes almost word for word. But when in the same place, on the preceding page, I had read that by Dionysius, for that history, a Syrian author contemporary with the Martyrs was cited, I began to doubt whether Dionysius perhaps did not mean to designate Jacob of Sarug, who in some way can be called contemporary with the resurrection of the Martyrs, in that he flourished in the same century. But if a Syrian, different from Jacob of Sarug, and strictly contemporary with the Martyrs, left this history to posterity, doubtless Assemani in his Library would have suggested to us further knowledge of that writer, if, however, Dionysius had determinately indicated his name and age. However it be, we did not judge it worthwhile that these Acts of Dionysius should be converted from the Syriac idiom into Latin, because they are similar to those of Metaphrastes, as the just-cited Assemani testifies.

[47] and other anonymous ones, which we found in manuscripts. Besides these Syriac, Latin, and Greek Acts, we have various manuscript copies of the same Acts, of which one, in the library of St. Maximin of Trier, thus begins: "In that time, the impious emperor Decius reigning, a great persecution of the Christians was made. But Decius, assailing the Christians, went down into the city of Constantinople and up into Carthage and Ephesus." But the beginning of another manuscript, which our Predecessors copied from the codex of St. Salvator of Utrecht, sounds thus: "At the same time the most cruel emperor Decius, reigning, went down into the city of Constantine, and again came into Carthage and Ephesus." I do not enumerate the four or five manuscript codices of our Museum, which nearly agree with these copies. For the rest, we deem all these by no means worthy of the press, both because their age and writers are unknown, and because they are similar to the narration of Metaphrastes and seem taken from it. If, however, any difference worthy of note occurs, we shall observe it in the Annotations.

§ VII. The controversy concerning the truth of the Acts is set forth.

Cardinal Baronius in the notes on the Roman Martyrology on the 27th of July proposes against this history several difficulties, [Baronius, who in the notes on the Roman Martyrology had wished to define nothing about this history,] after which he thus concludes: "These are the things which seem to stand against these. But what is to be thought in this matter, I by no means decide, nor do I take so much upon myself as to dare to define these things." Since, therefore, he wrote this, he was unwilling to pass judgment on the truth of this history. But the most eminent man seems to have changed his mind, or to have forgotten his purpose, when in the ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 853, no. 61, otherwise 84, on the occasion of the fable of Pope Joan, he enumerates various fictions to which credence was commonly given, and among which he thus places this very history of the seven Sleepers: "Happy," he says, "the course of history, if it could be borne along only with sincere truth, without the obstacle of fables, which, once sown, like tares among the wheat, with fixed roots, having feigned the appearance of wheat, rise up with a taller stalk, and, like wheat, are reaped with the reaper's equal sickle, and stored with the grain in the barns, and, mixed with the wheat, now adorned with the name of wheat, and at an equal price and by the same measure with the wheat, are sold: so, the name of fables being abolished, once received, they pass into history, so that there is need of a great sifter, who with great labor may separate the false from the true, and the fables from the histories.

[49] Nor are examples of these lacking: for the fable of the temple of peace at Rome having collapsed at the time of Christ's birth, in his Annals he places it among the fables. which had not yet been built, once asserted, was confirmed by the authority of manifold and not vulgar writers. Of the soul of Trajan called back from the lower regions by the prayers of St. Gregory, the invention, once believed, had even the most eloquent asserters, nay even defenders. Has not that fable, hitherto read as history, of Pope Cyriacus accompanying St. Ursula from Rome to Cologne with eleven thousand virgins, when yet not even in a dream did a Pontiff of that name sit in the see of Peter? Of the seven Sleepers, held by sleep for nearly two hundred years, what shall I say, a history read and received both by the Greeks in the East and by the Latins in the West? Of Pope Sylvester the second, that he obtained the pontificate by magic, and was torn to pieces at his death by the devil? Of the death of Hadrian brought on by a fly, what shall I add?" You see that here the prodigious history of the seven Sleepers is numbered among the fables. Whether new reasons impelled the most eminent writer to change his judgment, we know not. At least he indicates none there. Wherefore it will suffice us to exhibit here those difficulties which Baronius opposed to this history in the notes on the Roman Martyrology, together with the responses of the most illustrious Assemani, who lately in the Oriental Library, vol. 1, from page 336, endeavored to solve the several objections of Baronius. But all these we shall report in the very words of both writers, lest perhaps we seem, on either side, to have lessened or increased the force of the arguments.

[50] The difficulties are set forth, The most eminent Baronius in the notes on the Roman Martyrology on the already-mentioned day thus proposes his first argument: "The opinion of those who think that these were called sleepers not on account of death, but because they were truly oppressed by sleep during that space of time, is greatly opposed by this, that they themselves say that miracle was done by divine power for this cause, that at that time a heresy concerning the resurrection of the flesh had arisen, when in reality nothing such is found to have happened in the times of Theodosius the younger: for neither in the most sacred council of Ephesus, which was celebrated under the same Theodosius, nor in the most sacred synod of Chalcedon, held next after it, is any mention ever found made of such a heresy, which ought to have been condemned by the first opinion of all the fathers." To these the most learned Assemani in the just-cited place thus replies: "But Sarugensis reports nothing of that heresy in the praised sermon; but only at the end of it writes that Theodosius, that miracle being seen, was confirmed in the faith of the resurrection of the dead. But the Syrian author of the Acts, and from him Metaphrastes, deliver that that heresy indeed then arose, and was defended by Theodore, bishop of the Aegeans, and by others: yet not therefore ought that heresy to have been condemned by a new council, or a new canon, since it had once been expressly condemned by Christ the Lord in the Gospel, and by the Fathers of Constantinople, a few years before, in the creed."

[51] which the most eminent writer Baronius thus proceeds to his second argument: "Besides, if the Lord willed to raise these Martyrs to establish the faith of the resurrection, it is manifest that they were really dead: for otherwise there would have been testimonies of sleepers indeed awakened from sleep, but not of the dead rising, which would establish the faith of the resurrection." Assemani meets this difficulty thus: "That they were really dead, and afterward, in the times of Theodosius, rose again, Sarugensis asserts, and from him the Syrians in the office of these Martyrs: 'He took their spirits, and bore them up on high into heaven: and bade a watcher guard their limbs.' But those who write that they were awakened from sleep, answer that by that miracle it was shown that God can restore limbs reduced to ashes to their former integrity, who had made the same not succumb to corruption through so many years: for this was new among men; but that the dead were recalled to life was sufficiently proved by several examples from the Gospel and from the Acts of the Apostles and of the martyrs."

[52] raises against this history, Then the most eminent illustrator of the Martyrology thus argues, in the same place, from the silence of the contemporary authors: "To these is added, that none of those writers who lived in those times committed a thing so signal, a miracle so great, to the monuments of writings: all which it is not probable were unknown to them; for instance to St. Prosper, who set forth the deeds of those times year by year, or to Marcellinus, or some other of the writers of those times." The most learned Maronite endeavors to enervate this negative argument by this response: "Our Jacob committed it, who was born a few years after that miracle, as we demonstrated above. The same history was written by a Syrian author contemporary with the Martyrs, whom Dionysius the patriarch cites, three centuries later than the Martyrs. Gregory of Tours wrote it about the end of the sixth century. Finally Mahomet himself, the pseudo-prophet, wrote it in the Koran, in the Sura, that is, OF THE CAVE, where he makes express mention of this miracle, which had spread not only through Asia and the East, but even through the barbarous regions of the Hagarenes. But if the argument of Baronius were valid, it would prove that neither were the bodies of the Martyrs found under Theodosius, because the Greek or Latin historians of those times made no mention of their discovery."

[53] The Cardinal, finally, thus brings forth his last argument: "We add also, that Stephen, bishop of Ephesus, together with the responses of the most learned Assemani, in the time of whose see this is reported to have happened in the Acts which Metaphrastes writes, was thrust into that see by force of arms, and polluted by communion with Eutyches and Dioscorus in the robber-council of Ephesus, as the Acts themselves have, which are recited in the most sacred council of Chalcedon, in the first and eleventh action; whose communion indeed the aforesaid Sleepers ought rightly to have abhorred and shunned." This ratiocination Assemani thus refutes: "The same reasoning militates against the opinion of Baronius, namely that by a heretical bishop so great a treasure was found. As for Stephen, I think that Metaphrastes, using a faulty copy, put Stephen for Memnon, the orthodox bishop: for in the Syriac Acts Mares is named bishop of Ephesus, who without doubt crept in from the corrupted name of Memnon. That the text of Metaphrastes must now be restored is persuaded by the things which are read in Dionysius concerning the year of the apparition of the Martyrs; namely that they were awakened in the year of the Greeks 736, of Christ 425, in which year not Stephen, but Memnon ruled the see of Ephesus: for he was present at the ecumenical synod of Ephesus together with St. Cyril in the year 431, and died about the year 440, whom Basil succeeded until the year 444. Bassian succeeded Basil in the same year, and, he being ejected after four years, Stephen invaded the see in the year 448. Both at last, namely Bassian and Stephen, were deposed in the year 451 in the synod of Chalcedon, as Pagi at length at this year from no. 56." One may also see the things which our Matthew Rader a hundred years ago published in the Holy Court, chapter 13, to vindicate that history from the objections of Baronius.

[54] Let no one meanwhile expect from us a decision of this controversy, agitated among men so illustrious and learned, and the question is left undecided. since such weights of reasons are brought on both sides, that we dare not attribute the victory to either party, until from somewhere clear testimonies shall have come, which may settle the doubtful suit. Yet the opinion of Tillemont does not please us, who in vol. 3 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 349, thinks that the bodies of these Saints, found under the empire of Theodosius, afforded a sufficient foundation to certain Greek writers, to feign the rest of the circumstances of the history. But who would believe that the mere discovery of sacred bodies at that time was so rare, that the fame of it spread through the East and the West, as we said above? It seems, therefore, that here something more happened. If Tillemont had added that those seven Martyrs, with whole body and living face, as if sleeping, were found after the space of so many years, and hence the Greeks adorned their Acts, then at least he would have rendered his conjecture in some way probable. Whatever be the case with the truth of the whole history, concerning which we leave free judgment to the studious reader after the arguments brought on both sides, with our Rader we conclude that a tradition so commonly received, committed to the writings of so many authors, celebrated in the tongues of so many diverse nations, is not rashly to be denied without evident testimonies or most certain proofs of reasons. Now it only remains that we publish in print, in the first place, as more ancient, the Syriac Acts of the seven Sleepers, which Baronius, Rader, and Tillemont were not permitted to see, then to subjoin the others in the order and manner which we promised above.

THE MORE ANCIENT ACTS, BY JACOB OF SARUG.

From the Syriac codex XIII of the Nitrian monastery, folio 79, Petrus Benedetti of the Society of Jesus interpreting.

Malchus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Martinianus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Dionysius, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

John, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Serapion, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Constantine, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT Syriac CODEX.

Son of God, whose door lies open to him who invokes it, open thy door to me: In the Decian persecution I will compose a hymn of the children of light. He is the good Shepherd, who from the midst of His flock set apart Lambs for Himself, and gathered them in the heavenly mansions to live with Him. Blessed be the Husbandman, who from the tares chose for Himself grains of wheat, and sowed them in the field of life, which is in the kingdom. Of the Children ^a of Ephesus, sons of the nobles, a discourse must be spoken by me to the hearers. Hearken to me, laborers, and sing the praise of the Son of the bridal chamber. The emperor Decius went forth from his place to another place, to see the towns and cities of his empire. He entered Ephesus, and struck it with great fear, and kept a feast to Jupiter and Apollo and Artemis ^b, and wrote a letter to the lords of his empire, that all should come, and burn incense to the gods. The princes assembled, the old, the young, and the boys, and offered incense to the mute images made by hands.

[2] certain young men of Ephesus, brought before the emperor, But there were present there lovely Boys, sons of the nobles, who despised the command, nor, like their comrades, subjected themselves; and, having entered the house of Jesus, hid themselves from that wrath, lest the stench of the unclean incense should ascend to them. Their companions saw, and accused them before the emperor; that "behold, here are Boys who have resisted thy command." The emperor heard, and grew hot against the meek, and ordered the Boys to be brought, that he might see them. The wolves ran forth, and from the midst of the flock snatched the Lambs, and with haste brought them before the sight of the emperor. The emperor saw their admirable persons, and spoke gently with them, saying: "Tell me, Boys, why have you transgressed my command? Come and sacrifice, and I will make you nobles."

[3] refused to sacrifice to the idols, and, a space being granted for deliberation, The son of the hyparch ^c and his seven Companions ^d opened his mouth: "Mute images made by hands we do not adore," he said; "there is present to us that Lord of heaven, and He will help us, and Him we adore, and to Him we offer purity of heart: and thou indeed hast for king Jupiter and Apollo and Artemis; but we have for king the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." The emperor commanded, and they beat them with rods; and again he commanded, saying: "Dismiss them, until I come." For he was hastening to visit the towns and cities, and thence he thought to return, and to enter Ephesus with that mind. The emperor departed from Ephesus to his business; but the lovely Boys consulted among themselves: "Let us go out and flee from this city of the Ephesians, before the accursed emperor come, and torment us."

[4] There was in that place a cave hollowed out in the rock on the summit of the mountain, they fled to a nearby cave, and the lovely Boys thought to hide themselves in it. Of the money of their fathers they took with them: for it was to be that by it they should be detected and praised. They did not take with them choice or first garments: for there was no need of good garments, that they might be detected. Of the coinage ^e of the pagan emperor they took silver with them: for he who has money of the coinage has a token whence he may be detected and convicted. They went up into the mountain, and, having entered the cave, passed the night there, and invoked the Lord with a groaning voice, and thus said: "We beseech thee, good Shepherd, who chose His sheep, guard thy flock from that wolf thirsting for our blood."

[5] God saw the faith of the lovely Lambs, and came to give the good reward of their retributions. in which they fell asleep. He took up their spirits, and bore them up into the heavens, and left a watcher, who should guard their limbs. The emperor returned, and, having entered Ephesus, asked: "Where are the Boys who were rebels to the command?" They answered him, saying: "Behold, on the top of the mountain, within a cave, they lie hidden." And the cruel emperor thought to slay them in the cave. He commanded also, and there came craftsmen with their machines, and rolled stones with their engines, and placed them at the mouth. There were present there two sophists ^f, sons of the nobles; and it came into their mind that it would be that the Lord would raise them: and they made leaden tablets, and placed them by them, and wrote on them the names of the Children of light, and for what cause the Boys, having entered the cave, had hidden themselves there, and at what time they had fled from the face of Decius.

[6] The age of the pagan emperors passed away, and their empires together departed; and God willed to raise the Children of light. After very many years, awakened, they send one of their number to Ephesus, There was in the same place a wealthy man in Ephesus, and he wished to build a roof for his cattle on the summit of the mountain, and gathered stones, and built an enclosure for his cattle in that place: and he saw the hewn stones, and disposed them. The light entered and raised the Children of light, and they shook themselves from their sleep, and sat upon the earth (wonderful to say!) and the lovely Boys began to deliberate among themselves: "Who now will go down and see whether the emperor has come; will learn and inspect what he has commanded concerning us? whether, that is, he has sought us, or not sought us, and will report to us?" One who was present of their number, and was called Jamlicus ^g, he said: "I will go down and understand, and under the guise of a beggar will penetrate into the palace, and will learn and inspect what he has ordained concerning us." They answered him, saying: "Take money and bring bread; for behold, from evening the bread has failed and we have not supped."

[7] The Boy hastened from the top of the mountain, and came into the city, who, thinking he had slept only a single night, and invoked the Lord with a groan saying: "We beseech thee, good Shepherd, who chose His sheep, guard thy flock from that wolf thirsting for our blood"; and, his eyes raised, he saw a cross above the gate, and bowed his head, and with a groan adored it: and he began to look about, whether perchance any of the pagans beheld him; and he began to say in his thought: "What is this? For behold, from evening the cross was hidden from the pagans, and behold, today it is openly fixed above the gate?" The Boy went on, and came to another gate, and, raising his eyes, saw likewise a cross set above the gate, and began to say: "Raving, I have raved ^h and am mad. Is this, thinkest thou, the city of Ephesus, in which I was reared?" And, beholding a man sitting in the marketplace, he approached him and asked: "Tell me, good man; what city is this?" "This city," he answered, "is called Ephesus." But he was astonished, considering in his mind what had befallen him.

[8] he marvels at all things new, He went on to run about through the crossways, nor did he turn from the way, until he came to the palace, and saw the doors shut to him. He turned aside to the marketplace, to buy bread and carry it with him. He gave the money drawn from his purse. He who sold the bread took it, and considered, and nodded to his comrade, that he too should approach and inspect it. Through the hands of five men that money was passed, and, contemplating it, they began to mutter among themselves about it. And the Boy saw them muttering among themselves, and answering said: "Give me the bread, if you give it, or I will depart." The man who sold the bread approached, and seized the Boy, saying: "Tell me, Boy; whence art thou, and what is thy land? And deliver the treasure which thou hast found, that we may all share in it. But if thou refuse to reveal it to me, I will deliver thee to prison." The Boy answered: "A treasure I have never seen, nor do I in any way know of it."

[9] and, on account of the ancient money, accused of a found treasure, A cry fell ⁱ within the marketplace of the Ephesians, that "behold, a Boy has found a treasure": and straightway they seized him. The word entered the holy church, to the bishop: and he sent men to snatch him from their hands; and he questions him: "Tell me, Boy; whence art thou, and what is thy land, and what is thy place, and where is the treasure which they say thou hast found?" The Boy said: "From Ephesus itself I am, and I am the son of Rufus the elect, who is of the nobles." And Jamlicus himself began to look about the crowd, whether perchance he might see anyone of his race and kindred, or of his brethren, or kinsmen, or acquaintances, who might call his father's name, and come to snatch him from their hands. And when he had seen no one of his race and kindred, tears burst from his eyes, and he began to weep.

[10] he discloses the prodigious history of his Companions, There was present there a certain sophist in the holy church, who seized the Boy, and questioned him with discretion: "Speak, son, the truth to me: why dost thou delay? Reveal and set forth whence thou art, and do not hide thyself from me." The Boy said: "I will show thee the truth; but do thou reveal to me and show what I sincerely ask of thee. Answer me and say: Where is the emperor Decius? Then in turn I will open my affairs to thee." Hearing these things, the sophist marveled greatly, and grew hot against that Boy, who was showing him deep things. "Vile and mad," he said, "and guilty of death, dost thou mock me? Do I seem to thee a boy of twelve? He of whom thou hast spoken died a very long time ago, and according to the number and reckoning of the Greeks three hundred and seventy-two years ^k are computed to have flowed from that emperor." The Boy said: "From him indeed I and my Companions fled, and behold, on the top of the mountain I slept, and my seven Companions."

[11] The nobles and elders and the noble and the boys assembled, to see whom many citizens of Ephesus, with their bishop, to go up and see the treasure of life which had been revealed to them. The cry fell into the whole region of the Ephesians, saying: "Come and see this treasure manifested to us." The Boys who were in the cave heard, and were moved and afraid, thinking that the emperor had sent satellites to seize them; and the son of the hyparch strengthened them, saying: "Rise and be strengthened, and put on the armor of faith, and let us trust in God, since He helps us, and strengthens us, and governs us according to His will." And while he exhorted them, the Boy entered, and stood with them, and the bishop and the nobles together with him entered: they saw the Boys sitting upon the earth, greeted them, saying: "Peace be with you"; and straightway they wrote a letter to the emperor Theodosius, saying: "Come, lord, and see the treasure of life, which has been revealed to us."

[12] The emperor hastened, and came down, and saw them: he greeted them, saying: "Peace be with you." He took that leaden tablet, and the emperor Theodosius came. and began to read for what cause the Boys had entered the cave, and there hidden themselves. Then the emperor invited them to come down with him to Ephesus, thinking to build a temple over their bones ^l. They answered, saying: "In this place we shall be, because we have loved this place. The Shepherd of His flock Himself commanded us to be in this place. For thy sake, behold, Christ our Lord has raised us, that thou mayest see and be confirmed that there is truly a resurrection ^m." … And He left them, and they rested in that eternal sleep. Blessed be the Shepherd, who chose the Lambs from His flock, and made them heirs of the bridal chamber and of paradise and of the heavenly kingdom.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE OTHER ACTS, BY GREGORY OF TOURS.

From the manuscript of the church of St. Omer, which we collated with the edition of Mombritius, to which it very nearly approaches.

Malchus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Martinianus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Dionysius, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

John, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Serapion, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Constantine, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

BHL Number: 2313

FROM THE Saint-Omer MANUSCRIPT.

When throughout the whole world ^a the persecution of the Christians was being stirred up, Seven men of Ephesus in the persecution of Decius and deadly sacrifices were being offered to the vain idols, there were seven Men ^b in the palace of the chief king, and sprung from a noble family; that is, Achillides, Diomedes, Diogenes, Probatus, Stephen, Sambatius, and Quiriacus ^c. These, when they often beheld the cruel crimes of the emperor, that he ordered deaf and mute idols to be worshiped instead of the eternal God, being divinely compunct, flew to the grace of baptism; and were called at the font of regeneration Maximianus ^d, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantinus ^e, Dionysius, John, Serapion. Therefore, Decius coming to the city of Ephesus, ordered the Christian race to be sought out with all diligence, so that he might, if it were lawful, extinguish the very name of the religion. At length the sacrifices are prepared, he himself sacrifices, and by blandishments and terrors instigates his own to sacrifice. All poured out victims; and the whole city smoked with the stench of the horrid ceremonies. Which these seven Athletes of Christ seeing, they were prostrate in prayer with tears: and, dust being sprinkled upon their heads, they begged the mercy of the Lord; that, looking down from His holy heaven, He would not suffer the people of the Lord to be subverted in this perversity.

[2] This being learned, the persecutors of the Christian name came to the prince, saying: unwilling to sacrifice to the gods, "The command of thy empire, O king, has run through the bounds of the whole earth, and no one presumes to contravene thy order. And all pour out daily sacrifices to the immortal gods, except seven Men, whom thou uniquely cherishest with affection, and lovest." To whom the emperor said: "And who are they?" They answered: "Maximianus, son of the prefect, with his satellites." And straightway, the emperor raging, laden with iron they were brought into his sight, having their faces suffused with tears, and dust upon their heads, as they had been supplicating in the sight of the Lord. Whom the emperor, beholding, said: "Has so great a perfidy of a depraved mind held you, that you dare to contravene our names, and not render due holocausts to the immortal gods? For I say to you by my glory: that you shall experience diverse kinds of torments, for the contempt of our gods."

The men answered, saying: "He is the God, creator of heaven and earth and sea ^f, to whom we daily sacrifice the due sacrifice of praise, for whose name we are ready even to die. But the names which thou reprovest us for not adoring as with the name of gods, we know to be nothing at all. For since they are members distinguished by the art of craftsmen, they cannot take the use of animating life, and therefore both those who adore them are condemned by the prophetic sanction, that both the makers and the adorers of them may become like them."

[3] Then the emperor, raging, all being removed, said: a space being granted for deliberation, they fled into a cave, "Depart, O gallows-birds, from our presence: until, doing penance for the crime of this insult, you be received into our palace, and, reconciled to the mercy of the gods, may fully enjoy the flower of your youth ^g. For it is not fitting that so great comeliness and beauty of body should be subjected to torments." And, the iron being struck off from their necks, he ordered them to go free, until he himself should return to Ephesus. And so, the seven Men having received leave to depart, the emperor departing to another city, they went to their homes, and, having inspected the protection of the house ^h, took away gold and silver, and garments, and all their furniture. Which being distributed to the poor, they went into the cave of Mount Celion, carrying with them a little money to buy the necessity of food: and they chose Malchus to go secretly into the city and buy provisions, and hear what the emperor decreed daily concerning the Christians.

[4] The Saints, therefore, being shut up under the private custody of the prison, and giving themselves to assiduous prayer, the wicked emperor returned to Ephesus, in which they fell asleep and, the Christians being sought out as usual, he asks about Maximianus and his companions: but their parents said that they were shut up in a certain cave of Mount Celion, whence they could easily be brought out, if the royal command of the emperor should be issued. Which when the Men had learned, Malchus announcing it, greatly terrified, they prostrated themselves upon the earth, and with tears prayed that the Lord, keeping them in the faith, would keep them from the sight of the most wicked emperor. And, as they prayed, God, foreseeing that they would be needed hereafter, heard their prayer; and took up their souls: and they were lying upon the ground, as if sleeping in a sweet sleep.

[5] Then the emperor, moved, said to his men: "Go therefore and block up the mouth of the cavern, that those rebels against the gods may have no entrance for going out." after it had been closed by the command of Decius. But as those went who were to block up the mouth of the cave, there preceded them two men, Theodore and Ruben, Christians, who, on account of the threats of the emperor, secretly worshiped Christ. These, writing on leaden tablets the whole history of the Saints, placed them at the entrance of the cavern within, no one knowing, saying: "Whenever God shall will to reveal to the peoples the blessed limbs of His Athletes, let these teach the things which they endured for His name." But those who had been sent, coming, and rolling up great stones, closed the entrance of the cave, and departed, saying: "Here let them fail by hunger, and devour themselves with their own bites, who despised to offer to our gods the due libations."

[6] Then in the time of Theodosius After these things, Decius being dead, through the succeeding times the sum of the empire was conferred upon Theodosius, son of Arcadius. In whose time that unclean sect of the Sadducees ^k arose, wishing to overthrow the hope of the resurrection, saying: "That the dead do not rise." But the head of this heresy were Theodore and Gaius ^l, bishops, who also wished to join the mind of the emperor himself to this unbelief. Whence it came to pass that the emperor, greatly afflicted by this cause and prostrate on the ground, besought the Lord that He would deign to intimate to him what he ought to follow. But there was then at Ephesus a certain Dalius, very rich in cattle, who, going about Mount Celion, ordered his boys, saying: "Prepare here folds for our sheep, because this place is opportune for pasturing the flock." For he was ignorant of what was being done in the cave. But as the boys worked, and rolled away huge stones, they came to the mouth of the cave, and found great stones; which, rolling them away, and making a wall, yet they did not enter into the cavern.

[7] rising, they send one of their companions to Ephesus, But the Lord ordered the spirits to return into the bodies of the Saints, and they rose and, greeting one another as usual, and thinking they had slept only one night, sat cheerful and robust. For not only were their bodies comely and most beautiful; but even their garments were whole and unharmed, as they had been put on by them many years before. And, turning to Malchus, they said: "Relate to us, we beseech thee, brother, what the emperor said this night, or whether we have been sought out, that we may know." To whom he said: "You have been sought out to sacrifice to the gods." To whom Maximianus said: "We are all ready to die for Christ. But do thou now take the silver coins, and go to procure food, and hearken diligently, and what thou hearest report to us." And so, the money being taken, he went. For the silver coins were superscribed with the name of Decius. But approaching the gate of the city, he saw the sign of the cross above the gate, and, stupefied, marveled, saying within himself: "Since yesterday, after the setting of the sun, when I was going out of the city, has the heart of Decius been changed, that he should fortify the gate of the city with the sign of the cross?" And, having entered the city, he heard men swear by the name of Christ, and look toward the church, and the clerics running about the city, and renewing the walls, and, more astonished, he said to himself: "Thinkest thou that thou hast entered another city?" And, approaching the market, he brought forth the silver coins, begging that food be given him.

[8] who, on account of the ancient money, being seized, But they, beholding the silver coinage, said: "This man has found ancient treasures, for behold, he brings forth silver coins from the times of Decius." But Malchus, hearing these things, turned over thoughts in his heart, saying: "What do these things mean? Do I see a dream?" But the men, having seized him, lead him to the bishop Marinus, and to the prefect of the city. To whom the prefect said: "Whence art thou; or from what region hast thou come?" "From Ephesus," he said; "if indeed this is the city of the Ephesians, which yesterday I remember to have seen." "Whence," said the prefect, "hast thou these silver coins?" He answered: "From the house of my father I took them." The prefect said: "And where is thy father?" And he named his parents, but no one knew them. The prefect said: "Relate to us, whence hast thou these silver coins? For they are from the time of Decius, who died so many years ago. Whence it is manifest that thou hast come to mock the wise men of the Ephesians, and therefore thou shalt be subjected to torments, until thou disclose the truth." And Malchus, moved with amazement and tears, said: "One sign I would ask of you, if you deem it worthy. The emperor Decius, who persecuted the Christians in this city, where is he?" The bishop Marinus answered: "There is not in this city, most beloved son, a man who recalls the times of Decius: for many years ago he died."

[9] Malchus, hearing these things, turned to himself and said to the bishop: who manifests the prodigy of the resurrection, "I thought that I had slept with my brethren only one night; but, as I learn, the courses of many years have passed over our sleep. And now the Lord has sought me out with my brethren, that all the world may know that the resurrection of the dead shall take place. Follow me, therefore, and I will show you my brethren, who rose with me." Then the astonished bishop with the prefect, and all the people, following Malchus, came to the cave. But while Malchus was relating to the brethren what had befallen him in the city, the bishop, entering, found a coffer, sealed beforehand with two silver seals; and, going out, calling together the multitude of the city with the prefect, he opened the seals, and found two leaden tablets, on which was written the whole passion of them, as we related above, and they recognized that the things said by Malchus were true.

[10] Then, entering, they found the blessed Martyrs sitting in a corner of the cave, to see which, besides the bishop and the citizens of Ephesus and their faces were like flowering roses and shining like the sun in its strength: for nothing was diminished, neither of their garments nor of their bodies. But the bishop Marinus with the prefect fell down before their feet, and adored them, and all the people glorified God, who deigned to show such a miracle to His servants. But the Saints related to the bishop and all the people what had befallen them in the time of Decius. And the bishop with the prefect sent messengers to the emperor Theodosius, saying: "Hasten as quickly as thou canst, if thou wilt see a great miracle, which is made manifest, God granting it, in thy times. For if thou come, thou shalt know that the hope of the resurrection is very useful, according to the pledge of the Evangelical promise."

[11] The emperor Theodosius, hearing these things, rose with joy, and stretching out his hand to God, said: the emperor Theodosius himself came, "I give thanks to thee, Lord Jesus Christ, sun of justice, who hast deigned to besprinkle the darkness of mortals with the light of thy truth; I give thee thanks, who hast not permitted the lamp of my confession to be veiled by the foul mists of assertions." And saying these things, having mounted horses, with the greatest haste he came to Ephesus. But the bishop with the prefect, and all the multitude of the city, went out to meet the emperor. But as they all ascended, the holy martyrs went forth to meet Augustus, and their faces were made shining like the sun in its strength; and Augustus fell to the earth: and adored them, glorifying God. And rising, he kissed them, and wept upon the neck of each of them, saying: "So I see your faces, as if I saw my Lord Jesus Christ, when He called Lazarus from the tomb; to whom I render immense thanks, that He has not defrauded me of the hope of the resurrection."

[12] But Maximianus answered: "Know, emperor, that to confirm thy faith the Lord ordered us to rise. with whom the seven Martyrs, having conversed, again fell asleep in the Lord. Therefore constantly and trusting in Him know that the resurrection of the dead shall take place, since thou seest us today, after the resurrection, speaking with thee, and relating the great works of God." And, speaking many other things with him, again prostrate on the earth they fell asleep, delivering their souls to the immortal King and almighty God. The emperor, seeing these things, rushed upon their bodies, and weeping kissed them, and, taking off his garments, placed them upon them, ordering golden coffins to be made, in which they should be laid up. But on that night the Saints appeared to him, saying: "Do not do it; but leave us upon the earth: from it the Lord will again raise us on the great day of the resurrection of all flesh." Then the emperor built over them a great basilica, and made there a receptacle for the poor, ordering them to be fed from the public treasury. And, the bishops being called together, he celebrated the festivity of the Saints, and all glorified God, to whom in the perfect Trinity be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen ⁿ.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE LONGER ACTS, BY PERHAPS SIMEON METAPHRASTES.

From the edition of Surius, which has been collated with a Greek manuscript and various Latin copies.

Malchus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Martinianus, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Dionysius, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

John, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Serapion, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

Constantine, commonly a holy Sleeper, Martyr, at Ephesus in Asia (St.)

From Surius.

CHAPTER I.

The persecution of Decius, the constancy of the seven Martyrs in the faith, their flight to the cave, and their long slumber.

[1] While Decius held the principate of the Roman empire, it happened that he himself came down from the city of Carthage ^a to Ephesus, When Decius stirred with much fury. Then all the neighboring region assembled in that city, to sacrifice to the vain and false gods. But the churches of those who followed the faith of Christ were dispersed. For the Christians, both priests and laity, feared the sight of the tyrant. Who, when he had entered Ephesus, with elated mind began to erect idols in the midst of the city: and when he was wholly addicted to them, he ordered the nobles of the city to offer victims with him to those vain gods. And so those places were filled with the blood of the victims, and all the crowds from every side flowed together to the celebration of the idols which were at Ephesus. For fame was spread through the bounds of that region, namely that the stench of the victims leaped up from the midst of the city on high.

[2] When, therefore, Decius kept the feast of his gods, and by his command the whole multitude, on account of that celebration, flowed briskly together from all places to the temples of the idols which were at Ephesus, against the Christians and poured out libations to the gods, and when that whole city was fragrant with sacrifices, the faithful men were sorrowful, and were also oppressed by the worshipers of the idols. And so they partly fled the faces of the persecutors, that they might not be seized; partly hid themselves. But three days after, the emperor set forth an edict, that all the Christians should be seized: at which time the gentiles and Jews urged the soldiers. Everywhere, therefore, the Christian men were dragged to the crowds which had assembled in one place, to sacrifice to the idols together with the emperor. Then some, dreading the torments, fell away from the faith, and before that crowd, wretched, fell down to the sacrifices of the idols. But those who from the heart followed the faith of Christ, when they heard that some had lapsed, greatly grieving at their fall, mourned the souls of the wretched men, who through fear had fallen down to the sacrifices of the idols. But whoever of their number were found more stable in the faith of Christ, keeping their mind and thought firm, and not dreading the threats of the tyrant, but gladly receiving the darts of the most wicked devil in their bodies, endured all torments with strong mind.

[3] And so the flesh of the holy martyrs was torn with many and various torments, was stirring up a horrible persecution, so that from their wounds much blood flowed down. Whose bodies were hung upon the walls and towers of the city: but their heads, fixed on stakes, were raised before the gates. And so ravens, vultures, and birds of this kind, surrounding those walls, tore the flesh of the holy martyrs. Which thing brought grief to the Christian men. Such and so great a combat was set before those who confessed the faith of Christ. Such were the threats full of terror, plainly formidable to all: such the hardships, moving almost the very stones. The streets of the city were crowded with the corpses of the holy martyrs. But the faithful wept, because they saw those holy bodies, cast down on the earth, torn by the birds. I ask, what deed is so greatly to be grieved? What slaughter so monstrous and bitter? Then the Christian men, their hands raised to heaven, prayed God that they might be snatched from the hands of the tyrant: fathers denied their sons, sons their fathers. The calamities themselves disjoined the most friendly men from one another. But Maximilianus, Jamblicus, Martinus, John, Dionysius, Exacustadius, and Antoninus, dwelling together, and all alike stable in the faith of Christ, and bearing the sufferings of Christ in their bodies, when they saw what was daily done against the Christians, assiduously fortified themselves with weeping, groaning, fasting, and prayers. But they were the sons of illustrious men and nobles of the city.

[4] seven Youths being seized on account of their faith But when the emperor had gathered the crowds of the gentiles to the sacrifices of the empty idols, then the holy Men, whom we named a little before, assembled in one place, and, together entering the church of the Christians, prostrated themselves on the earth, and, sprinkling their heads with dust, poured out groans and tears before God. Which when they did, they were observed by certain spies, namely that at that time, when the sacrifices were offered to the gods, they withdrew to the church of the Christians. And when each was diligently sought out, to sacrifice to the gods, those who had observed those men came, and said to the emperor: "Mayest thou live, emperor, for eternal time. Thou compellest those who are far off to be present at the sacrifices, and those who are near despise thy empire, and count thy commands as nothing, observing the religion of the Christians." But Maximilianus himself was the son of the governor ^b, likewise others especially illustrious in the army ^c. Then Decius the emperor, stirred with anger, ordered them to be led bound to him. When they were led: "Why," he said, "did you not remain with us, to sacrifice to the gods, who have called the whole world to obey them? Approach, therefore, and offer the due sacrifice to the gods, as all are wont to do." Then Maximilianus answered: "We have, Emperor, a God dwelling in the heavens, of whose glory heaven and earth are full, to whom we are wont to offer the sacrifice of our confession, and by the libation of our prayers we exult before God at all times. For we do not offer to those idols the stenches and smoke of your sacrifices, since we are unwilling to corrupt our souls."

[5] he grants a space of deliberating, These things heard, Decius would speak no more, but ordered the military belts to be taken from them. He said the cause of this thing to be that he had caught them as adversaries of the power of the gods. Besides, he decreed that they should be repelled from the munificence of the gods, and kept far from the military of the empire, until he could conveniently inquire concerning their religion. For it did not seem just to him, he said, that their youth should be consumed by torments: and so, moved by mercy, he granted them a space of time, that in the meanwhile they might come to their senses, return to the gods, and live. These things the emperor said, and ordered the iron chains to be taken from their necks, and them to be removed from his sight. Then Decius set out for other cities ^d, to do what he had in mind, yet with this counsel, that he should return to Ephesus. And so to the holy Men, whom we spoke of, it had been granted by the emperor that for some days they might freely go about.

[6] When, therefore, they had found an opportune time, and had determined to persevere in the faith of Christ, who, fleeing into a cave, they applied themselves to works of justice: and when they had gathered gold and silver from their paternal fortunes, they distributed much money to the poor, and, taking counsel among themselves, they exhorted one another in turn with these words: "Let us withdraw for a little while from this city, and go up into that great cave which faces the East. There, living quietly, let us pray to our God with attentive and assiduous prayers, that we may be made such as to be able to stand constantly before the sight of the tyrant: nor let us cease to praise the glory of God, that God Himself may help us with His aid, that we may keep His right confession, and may be able to receive that incorrupt crown prepared for those who guard His faith, and have acknowledged Christ." And so, when they had taken as much silver as could suffice them for expense, they ascended into a cave situated in the mountain (the mountain is called Ochlon ^e), in which place they passed many days, praying to God Himself, and always asking of Him the salvation of their souls. But to Jamblicus, who was younger than all the others, and fitter and more expeditious for undertaking the ministries, the business was imposed, that he should go down into the city, and, if anything needed to be done, do it himself. But that youth was very prudent. And so when he went down to the city, that he might not be recognized, he changed his garment, and seemed some one of the number of beggars: and, since he had money with him, he distributed some part to the poor: he took care also to overhear what was said about the emperor.

[7] After some days the emperor Decius returned to the city of Ephesus: and giving themselves to prayer, and at once ordered the nobles with those who followed Achillides ^f, and others who were there, to offer sacrifices to the vain idols: for he was very solicitous about his false gods, since he did not recognize their vanity. Wherefore the followers of the Christian faith were affected with great fear. When Jamblicus had heard these things, he went out from the city, carrying a few loaves with him, and returned to the cave of the mountain, where his companions were. Jamblicus related what he had heard in the palace of the tyrant at his entry, and how they too had been sought out, that together with the other citizens, the emperor being present, they should sacrifice. These things heard, they feared, and with much groaning and tears prayed to God. A table, therefore, was set before them, and the loaves which Jamblicus had bought, that they might take food, and become readier to sustain the combat of the tyrant. They sat, therefore, in the midst of the cave, and, the sun setting, took food. But when they sat sorrowful, and conversed among themselves, they began to sleep: for their eyes were heavy on account of grief.

[8] But the clement and kind God, who always provides for His servants, made them undergo a certain kind of death, they fell asleep in the same cave. that through them certain opportune miracles might be done. And so, when all had been seized by slumber, lying on the earth they died, rendering their souls to God, and celebrating the divine glory. But the silver which they had in their purses remained with them in that place in which they lay. The next day in the morning the emperor among the nobles ordered those seven Youths to be sought again. Who, when they were not found, turning to the nobles, said: "I greatly grieve on account of the calamities of those Youths, because they are sprung from illustrious and famous parents. For I think that they, judging the majesty of our empire to be very angry with them, on account of the religion of our piety violated by them, have fled. But the kindness of our empire is not angry with those who come to their senses, and bring back their minds to the clemency of our gods." These things the emperor said. To whom the nobles answered: "As for those Youths, the deserters of religion, let the majesty of thy empire by no means grieve, nor think that they have come to their senses: for they still persevere in their former ignorance, and, as we have heard, at that very time which was prescribed them to change their counsel, made more obstinate, they retain an obstinate will. And so they distributed the silver and gold to the poor disposed through the streets of the city, and no one saw them any more. If, therefore, it please thy majesty, let their parents be seized, and by torments compelled to say where their Sons lie hidden."

[9] which Decius, the place of their hiding being learned from their parents, The emperor, hearing these things, stirred with anger, ordered the parents of the Youths to be summoned. Whom when he saw present: "And where," he said, "are your Sons, the contemners of our empire and commands? For this reason I order you also to be slain on account of their insolence." Then they said: "We beseech thee, most kind emperor, that thou hear our cause. We have not violated the commands of thy empire and majesty, nor deserted the propitious divinities of the gods. Why then should we die for the sake of those who are deserters? But as for the silver and gold, they stole the money from us, which, when they had distributed it to the poor, they fled into the mountain, and there lie hidden in a cave. Whether, therefore, they live, or are dead, we know not." The emperor, hearing these things, dismissed those men, and thought much within himself what he should do to the Youths. But the kind God cast into his mind that he should block the entrance of that cave with stones, so that the bodies of the holy Martyrs might lie buried there, and the holy relics might not be removed, but might be preserved until the resurrection itself.

[10] ordered to be closed with great stones. Decius the emperor, therefore, pronounced against those Youths such a sentence: "Since the deserter Youths were unwilling to obey our edicts, and despised the divinity of our gods, therefore let them too be deprived of the kindness of our empire, nor let them any more appear in the sight of men. Wherefore let the entrance of the cave be blocked with great stones, and impressed with the fortification of seals, that they may be buried alive, and die in such a prison." For both the emperor and the whole city thought that those Youths still lived. But Theodore and Barbus ^g, who had been of the emperor's bedchamber, and very faithful ministers, since they too were Christians, on account of the persecution had hidden themselves. Then they said among themselves: "Let us write the martyrdom of the seven Youths on leaden tablets, since for the faith of Christ they died, and were made martyrs. And what we write, let us lay up in brazen coffers, and place the coffers themselves, fortified with a seal, among the stones which are in that place: (for perhaps the Lord will visit the Martyrs before the day of the last coming) that if at some time this cave be laid open and the bodies of the holy Martyrs brought into the open, from the monuments of the letters their deeds may be learned." Theodore and Barbus, therefore, did what they had communicated among themselves.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The prodigious resurrection, recognition, and veneration of the seven Sleepers.

After an interval of time the emperor Decius died, and all that age perished. But emperors succeeded, each in his own time, A heresy arising against the resurrection of bodies, until the emperor Theodosius began to hold the scepter. Who, when he reigned religiously and in a Christian manner, there arose certain heretics, who denied the resurrection of the dead, which Christ Himself willed to be firmly believed in His holy Church. For certain soldiers, worshipers of idols, while they dwelt in the palace of the emperor, stirred up an open persecution against some before the emperor. Nay, even certain bishops, wishing to pervert the right paths of God, were in the churches the authors of many prevarications. Of whom the chief and the head of all evils was held Theodore ^a, bishop of the Aegeans, together with those whom he had with him: who ought not even to be named, since they persecuted the Church of God. But the emperor Theodosius was daily more disturbed and grieved, when he saw the faith of the holy churches wavering. And so from God Himself he asked the cure of that evil. For there were those who said that to dead men there would be no consolation. Others affirmed that the body, consumed by age, would have no consolation, but that the soul alone would be a partaker of immortal life. Such men, deceived by vain opinions, thus erred, nor did they consider that an infant boy was never in the womb of his mother without flesh, nor did flesh come out of the womb without a vital soul. Likewise, closing the eyes of their mind, they did not consider the sacred Scriptures, in which it is written: "They who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall live," and in another place: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to eternal life, and others to reproach": while that too is found written in them: "Behold, I will open your sepulchers, and lead you out of your sepulchers, my people." These are the testimonies of the divine Scriptures. But the heretical men, deviating from the right path of life, went astray, and perverted the sincerity of the faith by the crooked thoughts of their souls.

[12] in the time of the Theodosian empire they rise, The emperor Theodosius, therefore, took that matter ill, and on account of it was affected with grief. But since the most clement God wills no one straying from the way of faith to perish, He caused the mystery of the resurrection to be laid open to all. For He cast into the mind of a certain man, who was called Adolius ^b, the lord of that mountain and cave where the holy Martyrs had slept, to build a certain sheepfold for his cattle. His servants, therefore, together with those who were engaged in doing the work, rolled away the stones for the building from the mouth of that cave. Then, by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, to those holy Men who had slept in the cave life was restored, and that voice which raised Lazarus from the tomb, the same restored also to the holy Martyrs the spirit of life. They rose, therefore, and, praising God, sat down, and, as they had been daily wont, greeted one another in turn, since no sign existed in them by which they could judge that they had been dead: for their garments too were such as before they died: their bodies also flourished, showing cheerfulness: in short, they were such as if they had taken sleep the evening before, and had awakened the next morning. Still solicitous also about the superstition of the idols, they thought that they were being sought by the emperor Decius: and on account of this, affected with much care, they turned their eyes to Jamblicus the steward, and asked of him anew what he had heard the evening before about them in the city. To whom Jamblicus answered: "As I told you yesterday evening, we too, together with the other citizens, were sought out to sacrifice to the gods before the emperor: who, unless we obey his command, has determined to bring torments upon us. But what he will do, I know not."

[13] and thinking they had slept only one night Then Maximilianus answered: "Come, brethren, let us be ready to go forth into the sight of that terrible emperor and true God, Jesus Christ, and let us not fear that mortal emperor. But do thou, Jamblicus, take care that food be prepared for us at the appointed hour. Take the silver, enter the city, buy many loaves: for few were those which thou broughtest yesterday evening, and on account of this we are hungry. In the same task learn what the emperor Decius decrees about us." For they thought that they had lain down the night before, and had awakened the next morning. Then, therefore, well in the morning, Jamblicus rose, and took silver from the coffers, as he had been wont. But that money was stamped with an old mark, which was reckoned partly at forty, partly at sixty nummi in value in the times of the old emperors, when the holy Men of whom we speak first lived. But three hundred and seventy-two years had passed from the time when they slept until that day on which they rose ^c.

[14] When, therefore, it had grown light, Jamblicus went out from the cave, they send their companion to the city of Ephesus, and saw the stones placed before the cave, and was astonished: for he knew nothing of those stones. But coming down from the mountain, he feared to walk. And so on the way he wholly trembled, fearing to enter the city, lest in some way he should be recognized, and led bound to the emperor Decius: since he was ignorant that the bones of that tyrant had rotted in the sepulcher ^d. But when he entered the city, and had seen the sign of the venerable Cross erected before the gates of the city, he was so astonished as almost to lose his mind: and to whatever part he turned his eyes, struck by the novelty of things, he was more astonished. He approached another gate of the city, and there too saw the Cross itself erected above the walls. And when he had gone about all the gates, beholding the figure of the venerable Cross placed there, he was made mute with amazement. And so, when he had betaken himself to that first gate, he thus spoke within himself: "What is this? Yesterday evening the sign of this Cross was kept in hiding, and now we see it openly erected on the very doors of the city. Do I see this truly, or am I deceived by the illusion of some specter?"

[15] While he said these things, and saw the figure of the Cross everywhere fixed, his mind more confirmed, he entered the city with bared ^e head. And when he advanced further, he heard many swearing by the name of Jesus Christ. who, marveling at the sign of the cross and other things there Wherefore, more struck: "What these things are," he said, "I know not. Yesterday evening no one freely named Christ, and now by so many tongues the name of Christ is celebrated." Again doubting with himself, he said: "Perhaps I do not see the city of Ephesus, since its buildings are wholly changed, and its language: some other has been taught Christ; which in no other city have I seen done, except in this alone." Having advanced, therefore, he asked of a certain citizen by what name that city was called. "Ephesus," said he, "this is called." Jamblicus did not believe, but thinking within himself: "Deceived," he said, "certainly I am, forgetful of places, and straying with my whole mind. I must go out, therefore, from this city, lest I stray the more."

[16] When, therefore, he was held with great solicitude, and would depart thence from the matter, and, from the ancient money, giving suspicion of a found treasure, he first wished to buy loaves, and took silver, to give the price. But those who sold the bread, when they had seen that great and different coin, marveled, and in turn showed it to one another. Passed, therefore, from hand to hand, that coin went through all who sold bread. Who, in turn whispering in the ear, and beholding Jamblicus, said: "Truly this man has found a treasure, an old one indeed, and hidden many years ago." Jamblicus, when he saw them whispering, began to fear: for he thought that he was recognized by them, and would be delivered to the empire of Decius. But when many had approached, and could by no means recognize his appearance, they detained him in the midst of the marketplace. And so many crowds flowed together, and this report was spread through the whole city, that a certain youth had been seized, who had found a treasure. But the crowds gathered to him said: "This man is a stranger, nor do we ever see him." These things they said, and with intent eyes beheld him more and more. Jamblicus wished to plead his cause, that what they said about the found treasure was false: but, held by amazement, he could not do it. And when he looked round upon all the crowds, he recognized no one, and was known to no one, although he had been born of a famous and illustrious race at the city of Ephesus. Wherefore he was held with the greatest wonder, that the day before he had been known to all, and the next morning he recognized no one, and himself too was wholly unknown. He took care to find, among that crowd, his father or some one of his brethren, and saw no one.

[17] he is led to the bishop and proconsul of the city, Then that matter, spread through the whole city, came even to the ears of the bishop. By divine providence also it came to pass that the proconsul of that city came at that very hour to the bishop. Who, while he spoke of the treasure which he thought had been found by that youth, that matter caused the resurrection of the dead to be laid open to all. For both the proconsul and the bishop ordered that youth to be kept, kindly treated, and led to them with the silver which he had with him. When, therefore, Jamblicus was dragged to the church, he thought he was being dragged to Decius the emperor. And so he looked about hither and thither, to see some of his own, or of his kinsmen, or of those to whom he had been known. The crowd, as it would some madman, mocked the youth so looking about: and so he was impelled more violently to the church. But now the proconsul and Stephen ^f the bishop, taking that coin in their hands and inspecting it, marveled. Then the proconsul, questioning Jamblicus, said: "Where is the treasure which thou hast found? For this coin was stolen from a treasure." "By no means," said Jamblicus, "have I found a treasure, as you accuse me. This one thing I know for certain, that from my paternal money this silver is, stamped with the mark of that coin which was usual to this city. But truly I marvel, nor can I think whence this temptation has befallen me." To this the president: "Whence," he said, "art thou?" But Jamblicus answered him: "From this city, as I think, I am." "Born of what father?" said the president. "Is there anyone who recognizes thee? Let him come, and bear testimony for thee, and we will believe thee."

[18] Jamblicus brought forth the names of his father and brethren: nor did anyone know those and, examined by them whom he named. Then the president: "The things which thou sayest," he said, "are not true." Jamblicus, hearing these things, was perplexed in mind, and, having nothing to answer, was silent. Whom when he had seen so perplexed and sorrowful: "Perhaps," he said, "he is mad." Others said: "By no means is he mad, but feigns madness, that he may escape dangers." The president, chiding him with sharper words: "By what reason," he said, "can we bear with thee, or believe thee, that this silver came to thee from paternal money, when this coin by its inscription and mark signifies that it was three hundred and eighty years before us, and before Decius reigned, nor is in any part like that which is now current in the city? Canst thou, who art a youth, have parents so old and begotten three hundred years ago? Or dost thou think that thou art so cunning as to deceive the elders and wise men of the city of Ephesus? For these causes I order thee to be cast into chains, and beaten with scourges, until thou confess where that treasure is."

[19] Jamblicus, hearing these things and fearing, prostrated his face on the earth, he discloses the miracle of the resurrection, and addressed them with these words: "I beseech you that you be not burdened to tell me what I shall ask: for I will confess all things freely to you. The emperor Decius, who was in this city, does he live, or not?" To this the bishop Stephen: "There is not," he said, "son, one who today in this region is named the emperor Decius." Then Jamblicus: "Come, I beseech you, with me, and I will show you in the cave of Mount Ochlon my companions, that from them you may learn that what I say is true. Certainly I know that we fled thither from the emperor Decius: which Decius I too yesterday evening saw entering the city of Ephesus. But whether this city is Ephesus or not, I know not." Then the bishop Stephen, coming into this thought, that God through that youth wished to reveal something to them: "Let us go," he said, "and see." And straightway the bishop and the proconsul with the nobles and many crowds went up into the mountain to the cave, which Jamblicus, going before, showed. But while the bishop, and those who were with him, entered the cave, at its mouth the bishop found a certain brazen little chest, placed between two stones, and impressed with two silver seals; which, opening it before the president and the nobles, he found in it two leaden tablets, on which was written that Maximilianus, son of the Eparch ^g, Jamblicus, and the rest of the youths, had fled from the tyrant Decius, and that by the command of the tyrant Decius himself the entrance of that cave had been blocked. And their martyrdom too was written on the breadth of the same tablets ^h. Which being read, they were affected with wonder, and praised with the loudest voices God Himself, who had followed those youths with so great a miracle.

[20] But entering into the cave, they found those Saints sitting: whose faces shone like light. to see which Theodosius is invited, Casting themselves, therefore, at their feet, they venerated them, and gave thanks to God, who had granted them the spectacle of so great a miracle. Moreover the holy Martyrs taught them of all things which had been done under Decius. But at once the bishop and the proconsul sent letters to the emperor to this effect: "Let thy majesty order some to come here most quickly, and see the miracles which God has shown in the time of thy empire: since the sign of the resurrection to come in the last times has in our age been foreshown to the world itself, in the bodies of the holy Men, which have now risen." At which matter the emperor rejoiced, and praised the glory of God. Nay, he even set out to that place from the city of Constantinople with many men: and the whole city of Ephesus went forth to meet him. But at once, led by the bishop, the proconsul, and the nobles, he entered the cave: and when he had greeted and embraced the Youths, he began to weep, and, celebrating the glory of God, exulted with his whole soul. To whom Maximilianus, a most holy man: "From this time," he said, "thy empire, on account of the stability of thy faith, will be firm, and Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, will guard it in His name from all temptation. Believe me, that for thy sake we have been raised by God Himself."

[21] who, coming, honored greatly the Martyrs, again falling asleep in the Lord. The emperor, and the bishop, and all the crowd, hearing this discourse, rejoiced in a wonderful manner. But the holy Martyrs, when they had bowed their heads to the earth, and prayed to God, slept, and thus by the divine nod delivered their spirits to the Lord. The emperor, therefore, ordered seven golden chests to be made, in which the bodies of those seven Youths might be laid. But on that night the Youths appeared to the emperor in sleep, and said to him that he should let them rest in the cave in which they had been, above the earth. Wherefore the emperor willed them to be there until the present day. Then a great assembly of bishops came together there, and celebrated a feast-day, and the most blessed Men, as their dignity demanded, with due honors they all followed. Besides these, the emperor gave much to the poor of that region, and ordered those who were in prison to be dismissed. This being done, Theodosius returned glad to the city of Constantinople with a great retinue. But all, exulting, praised Christ our God, who makes His Saints wonderfully glorious: to whom belongs glory, honor, and adoration now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.