The Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus (†c. 250) — August 4 / August 17 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 4 according to the Julian Calendar (August 17 on the civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus.

The seven youths of Ephesus — Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodianus (Constantine), and Antoninus — lived during the reign of the lawless Decius (249–251). Saint Maximilian was the son of the prefect of the city of Ephesus, and the other six young men were the sons of other Ephesian nobles. They had been friends from childhood and served together. When the wrathful emperor came to Ephesus, he commanded that everyone appear to offer sacrifice to the idols, and a great multitude gathered at the pagan temples.

The Christians who would not submit to the emperor’s command were seized and given over to cruel torments. Soldiers hunted them down even in their hiding places, tormenting them to death; then the holy bodies were dragged through the streets of the city and hung upon the walls to be torn by birds, and the severed heads were mounted on posts to terrify the rest.

The seven youths were denounced. The enraged emperor summoned soldiers and ordered them to sacrifice to the idols at once. Speaking for his companions, Maximilian answered: “We have a hidden God, with whose glory heaven and earth are filled; to Him we offer in secret the sacrifice of our confession. We will not offer sacrifice before idols, nor deliver up the holiness of our souls and bodies to the will of the devil.”

Decius ordered that, as a mark of disgrace, the military belts be stripped from the confessors; yet he did not imprison them. Setting out on campaign, he hoped that by the time he returned to Ephesus the young men would come to their senses and repent of their conduct.

As soon as they were given the time, Maximilian and his companions distributed their goods to the poor, left the city, and took refuge in a cave on Mount Ochlon, desiring to prepare themselves through prayer and fasting for the struggle of martyrdom before Decius’s return. The youngest among them, Iamblichus, would go into Ephesus dressed as a beggar to buy bread. On one such errand he learned that the emperor had returned and was searching for them. Maximilian urged his friends to present themselves willingly for judgment; but by God’s will all seven fell asleep with a sweet death — they did not perceive their falling asleep nor the departure of their souls, and thus they slept upon the earth and commended their spirits to God. When the lawless ruler learned where the blessed ones were, he ordered the mouth of the cave walled up with stones, so that the young men might perish of hunger and thirst — for the emperor and the whole city supposed the saints to be still alive. Two secret Christians, the chamberlains Theodore and Varos, set among the stones a sealed casket holding two lead tablets inscribed with the names of the holy youths and an account of their struggle and death.

Nearly two centuries passed. The persecution of Christians had ceased, but in the days of the pious emperor Theodosius the Younger (408–450) there arose heretics who denied the resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. At that very time, to convert those who had gone astray and to strengthen the faithful, the Lord was pleased to work a wonder: at His prompting, the owner of the land on which Mount Ochlon lay resolved to build a sheepfold, and his servants rolled away the stones heaped at the mouth of the cave, so that the entrance was laid open. The youths of Ephesus awoke from their long sleep, their bodies wholly incorrupt. Not knowing how much time had passed since their repose, they again sent Iamblichus into the city to buy bread. As the young man drew near to Ephesus he was seized with amazement: the sign of the Cross was raised over the gates, and the name of Christ was freely proclaimed throughout the city. When he offered the bread-sellers a large silver coin of the old minting, they marveled and suspected the youth of having found some ancient treasure.

So the young man was brought before the bishop and the city authorities, and through his account the cave and the living youths were discovered. All understood that the all-merciful Lord, by rousing the blessed martyrs from their age-long sleep, had revealed to the Church the mystery of the resurrection of the dead. The emperor Theodosius himself came to Ephesus and spoke with the youths; he gazed upon them and glorified God, and his heart rejoiced at their confession. As all looked on, the saints once more bowed their heads to the earth and fell asleep — now until the general resurrection. The emperor wished to prepare caskets of gold for the bodies of the saints, but that same night the youths appeared to him in a dream and said: “From the earth our bodies arose, and not from gold nor from silver; therefore leave us in our place, in the cave, upon the earth, for from that same earth God will raise us up again.”

The memory of the Seven Youths of Ephesus is celebrated a second time on October 22. According to tradition the saints fell asleep a second time on that day; according to another account they first fell asleep on August 4 and awoke on October 22.