Seven Sleepers | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Illustration from theMenologion of Basil II | |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Oriental Orthodox Church Islam |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Feast | 27 July 4 August, 22 October (Eastern Christianity) |
TheSeven Sleepers (Greek:ἑπτὰ κοιμώμενοι,romanized: hepta koimōmenoi;[2]Latin:Septem dormientes), also known in Christendom as theSeven Sleepers of Ephesus, and in Islam asAṣḥāb al-Kahf (اصحاب الکهف,aṣḥāb al-kahf, lit.Companions of the Cave),[3] is alate antiqueChristian legend, and aQur’anicIslamic story. The Christian legend speaks about a group of youths who hid inside a cave[4] around the year AD 250 to escapeRoman persecutions of Christians and emerged many years later. TheQur'anic version of the story appears inSura 18 (18:9–26).[3]
The Seven Sleepers have been venerated as Christian saints since at least the 5th century as the "Holy Seven Youths" (Άγιοι Επτά Παίδες) in the Orthodox church;[5] in the Catholic Church, they are venerated individually.[6]
The story appeared in several Syriac sources beforeGregory of Tours's lifetime (538–594). The earliest Syriac manuscript copy is in MS Saint-Petersburg No. 4, which dates to the 5th century.[7]
The earliest known version of this story[clarification needed] is found in the writings of the Syriac bishopJacob of Serugh (c. 450–521), who relies on an earlier Greek source, now lost.[8] Jacob of Serugh, anEdessan poet-theologian, wrote a homily in verse on the subject of the Seven Sleepers,[9] which was published in theActa Sanctorum. Another sixth-century version gives eight sleepers in a Syrian manuscript in theBritish Museum (Cat. Syr. Mss, p. 1090).
Whether the original account was written in Syriac or Greek was debated, but today a Greek original is generally accepted.[10][7] The pilgrim accountDe situ terrae sanctae, written between 518 and 531, records the existence of a church dedicated to the sleepers in Ephesus.[7]
An outline of this tale appears in the 6th-century writings ofGregory of Tours and theHistory of theLombards ofPaul the Deacon (720–799).[11] The best-known Western version of the story appears inJacobus de Voragine'sGolden Legend (1259–1266). It also appears inBHO (Pueri septem),[12]BHG (Pueri VII)[13] andBHLDormientes (Septem) Ephesi.[14]
Accounts of the Christian legend are found in at least nine medieval languages and preserved in over 200 manuscripts, mainly dating to between the 9th and 13th centuries. These include 104Latin manuscripts, 40Greek, 33Arabic, 17Syriac, sixEthiopic, fiveCoptic, twoArmenian, oneMiddle Irish, and oneOld English.[10][15] Byzantine writerSymeon the Metaphrast (died c. 1000) alluded to it.[9] It was also translated intoSogdian. In the 13th century, the poetChardri composed anOld French version. The ninth-century Irish calendarFélire Óengusso commemorates the Seven Sleepers on 7 August.[16]
The legend was also translated intoPersian,Kyrgyz, andTatar.[7]
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The story rapidly attained a wide diffusion throughout Christendom. It was popularized in the West by Gregory of Tours, in his late 6th-century collection of miracles,De gloria martyrum (Glory of the Martyrs).[9] Gregory claimed to have gotten the story from "a certain Syrian interpreter" (Syro quidam interpretante), but this could refer to either a Syriac- or Greek-speaker from the Levant.[7] During the period of theCrusades, bones from the sepulchres near Ephesus, identified as relics of the Seven Sleepers, were transported toMarseille, France, in a large stone coffin, which remained a trophy of theAbbey of St Victor, Marseille.
The Seven Sleepers were included in theGolden Legend compilation, the most popular book of the later Middle Ages, which fixed a precise date for their resurrection, AD 478, in the reign of Theodosius[dubious –discuss].[17][18]
The story says that during thepersecutions by the Roman emperorDecius, around AD 250, seven young men were accused of followingChristianity. They were given time to recant their faith but refused to bow to Roman idols. Instead, they chose to give their worldly goods to the poor and retire to a mountain cave to pray, where they fell asleep. The Emperor, seeing that their attitude towardspaganism had not improved, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed.[1]
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Decius died in 251, and many years passed during which Christianity went from being persecuted to being thestate religion of the Roman Empire. At some later time—usually given as during the reign ofTheodosius II (408–450)—in AD 447 when heated discussions were taking place between various schools of Christianity about the resurrection of the body in the day of judgement and life after death, a landowner decided to open up the sealed mouth of the cave, thinking to use it as a cattle pen. He opened it and found the sleepers inside. They awoke, imagining that they had slept but one day, and sent one of their number to Ephesus to buy food, with instructions to be careful.[9]
Upon arriving in the city, this person was astounded to find buildings with crosses attached; the townspeople were astounded to find a man trying to spend old coins from the reign of Decius. The bishop was summoned to interview the sleepers; they told him their miracle story, and died praising God.[1]
The Seven Sleepers' various lives in Greek and other non-Latin languages are listed atBHO.[19]
The Quran tells that the polytheists (mushriks) ofMecca, after consulting with thepeople of the Book, tested Muhammad by asking him three questions, and Surah Al-Kahf was sent down in answer to them. Themushriks inquired about the identity of the Sleepers of the Cave, the real story ofKhidr, and aboutDhu al-Qarnayn.[20]
The story of the Companions of the Cave (Arabic:أصحاب الکهف,romanized: 'aṣḥāb al-kahf) is referred to inSurah Al-Kahf (Quran 18:9-26).[3] The precise number of sleepers is not stated. The Quran furthermore states that people, shortly after the incident emerged, started to make "idle guesses" as to how many people were in the cave. To this, the Quran asserts, "My Sustainer knows best how many they were."[21] Similarly, regarding the exact period of time the people stayed in the cave, the Quran, after asserting the guesswork of the people that "they remained in the cave for 300 years and nine added," resolves that "God knows best how long they remained [there]." The 9 years are often interpreted as the difference between solar and lunar years.[22] The Quran says that the sleepers included a dog, which Islamic tradition names asQitmir, who guarded the entrance of the cave (verse 18).[3]
Early versions do not all agree on or even specify the number of sleepers. Some Jewish circles and theChristians of Najran believed in only three brothers; theEast Syriac, five.[10] Most Syriac accounts have eight, including a nameless watcher whom God sets over the sleepers.[7][23] A 6th-century Latin text titled "Pilgrimage of Theodosius"[clarification needed] featured the sleepers as seven people in number, with a dog named Viricanus.[24][25]
Bartłomiej Grysa lists at least seven different sets of names for the sleepers:[10]
In the modern Orthodox Church, they are named
and in the modern Catholic Church, as
Qur'an 18:22 discusses the disputes regarding their numbers. The verse says:
Some will say, "They were three, their dog was the fourth," while others will say, "They were five, their dog was the sixth," only guessing blindly. And others will say, "They were seven and their dog was the eighth." Say, O Prophet, "My Lord knows best their exact number. Only a few people know as well." So do not argue about them except with sure knowledge, nor consult any of those who debate about them.[26]
The number of years the sleepers slept also varies between accounts. The highest number, given by Gregory of Tours, was 373 years. Some accounts have 372.Jacobus de Voragine calculated it at 196 (from the year 252 until 448).[10] Other calculations suggest 195.[7]
The Qu'ran says 300 years "and nine more." The nine more may account for the difference between christian and lunar calendars.[27]
Several sites[4] are attributed as the "Cave of the Seven Sleepers," but none could empirically prove to be the original site associated with the legend. As the earliest versions of the legend spread out fromEphesus, an early Christiancatacomb in that area came to be associated with it, attracting scores of pilgrims. On the slopes of Mount Pion (Mount Coelian) near Ephesus (near modernSelçuk in Turkey), thegrotto of the Seven Sleepers with ruins of the religious site built over it was excavated in 1926–1928.[28]: 394 The excavation brought to light several hundred graves dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. Inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers were found on the walls and in the graves. This grotto is still shown to tourists.
Other possible sites of the cave of the Seven Sleepers are in Damascus, Syria andAfşin andTarsus, Turkey. Afşin is near the antiqueRoman city ofArabissus, to which theEast Roman EmperorJustinian paid a visit. The site was aHittite temple, used as a Roman temple and later as a church in Roman andByzantine times. The Emperor brought marble niches from Western Anatolia as gifts for it, which are preserved inside theEshab-ı Kehf Kulliye mosque to this day. TheSeljuks continued to use the place of worship as a church and a mosque. It was turned into a mosque over time, with the conversion of the local population to Islam.
A cave nearAmman, Jordan, also known as theCave of Seven Sleepers, which has eight smaller sealed tombs inside and a ventilation duct coming out of the cave.[29]
The account had become proverbial in 16th-century Protestant culture. The poetJohn Donne could ask,
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?—John Donne, "The Good-Morrow".
InJohn Heywood'sPlay called the Four PP (1530s), the Pardoner, a Renaissance update of the protagonist inChaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale," offers his companions the opportunity to kiss "a slipper / Of one of the Seven Sleepers." Still, the relic is presented as absurdly as the Pardoner's other offerings, which include "the great-toe of the Trinity" and "a buttock-bone of Pentecost."[31]
Little is heard of the Seven Sleepers duringthe Enlightenment, but the account revived with the coming ofRomanticism. TheGolden Legend may have been the source for retellings of the Seven Sleepers inThomas de Quincey'sConfessions of an English Opium-Eater, in a poem byGoethe,Washington Irving's "Rip van Winkle," andH. G. Wells'sThe Sleeper Awakes. It also might influence the motif of the "King asleep in mountain."Mark Twain did a burlesque of the story of the Seven Sleepers in Chapter 13 of Volume 2 ofThe Innocents Abroad.[32]
Edward Gibbon gives different accounts of the story inThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
TheSerbian writerDanilo Kiš retells the story of the Seven Sleepers in a short story, "The Legend of the Sleepers," from his bookThe Encyclopedia of the Dead.
TheItalian authorAndrea Camilleri incorporates the story in his novelThe Terracotta Dog in which the protagonist is led to a cave containing the titular watchdog (as described in theQur'an and called "Kytmyr" inSicilian folklore) and the saucer of silver coins with which one of the sleepers is to buy "pure food" from the bazaar in Ephesus (Qur'an 18.19). The Seven Sleepers are symbolically replaced by loversLisetta Moscato andMario Cunich, who were killed in their nuptial bed by an assassin hired by Lisseta's incestuous father and later laid to rest in a cave in the Sicilian countryside.
InSusan Cooper'sThe Dark Is Rising series, Will Stanton awakens the Seven Sleepers inThe Grey King, and inSilver on the Tree, they ride in the last battle against the Dark.
TheSeven Sleepers series byGilbert Morris takes a modern approach to the story in which seven teenagers must be awakened to fight evil in a post-nuclear-apocalypse world.
John Buchan refers to the Seven Sleepers inThe Three Hostages, in whichRichard Hannay surmises that his wife Mary, a sound sleeper, is descended from one of the seven who has married one of theFoolish Virgins.
The Seven Sleepers are mentioned in the "Les Invisibles" song on the 1988Blue Öyster Cult albumImaginos.
Several languages have idioms related to the Seven Sleepers, including:
The most recent edition of theRoman Martyrology commemorates the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus under the date of 27 July.[37] TheByzantine calendar commemorates them with feasts on 4 August and 22 October.Syriac Orthodox calendars gives various dates: 21 April, 2 August, 13 August, 23 October and 24 October.[7]
It is in doubt of that which is said that they slept three hundred and sixty-two years, for they were raised the year of our Lord four hundred and seventy-eight, and Decius reigned but one year and three months, and that was in the year of our Lord two hundred and seventy, and so they slept but two hundred and eight years.
It is doubt of that which is said that they slept ccclxii. years. For they were raised the year of Our Lord IIIICLXXXIII. And Decius reigned but one year and three months and that was in the year of our Lord CC and LXX., and so they slept but iic. and viii. years.
