Antoninus of Ephesus

Saint Antoninus of Ephesus is one of the seven youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian (Constantine) and Antoninus, who lived in the third century. They are commemorated on 4 November and on 17 August, and a second time on 22 October.

The youths and the cave

Saint Maximilian was the son of the governor of Ephesus, and the other six youths were sons of other prominent citizens of Ephesus. The youths were friends from childhood and all were in military service. When Emperor Decius (249 to 251) came to Ephesus, he ordered all citizens to appear to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods; the disobedient were awaited by torments and death. On a denunciation by those seeking the emperor's favour, the seven youths too were summoned to judgment. Appearing before the emperor, the holy youths confessed their faith in Christ. The marks of military distinction, the soldiers' belts, were taken from them at once. Decius nevertheless let them go free, hoping they would change their decision while he was on campaign. The youths left the city and hid in a cave on Mount Ochlon, where they spent their time in prayer, preparing for martyrdom. The youngest of them, Saint Iamblichus, dressed in a beggar's rags, went into the city and bought bread. On one of these trips he learned that the emperor had returned and that they were sought to be brought to judgment. Saint Maximilian encouraged his friends to come out of the cave and appear of their own will. Learning where the youths were hiding, the emperor ordered the entrance of the cave walled up with stones, so that they should die there of hunger and thirst. Two of the officials present at the walling-⁠up of the entrance were secret Christians. Wishing to preserve the memory of the saints, they placed among the stones a sealed casket, in which were two tin tablets, with the names of the seven youths and the circumstances of their suffering and death.

The sleep

But the Lord sent upon the youths a wondrous sleep, which lasted almost two centuries. By then the persecution of Christians had ceased, although in the time of the holy and pious emperor Theodosius the Younger (408 to 450) heretics had appeared who denied the resurrection of the dead at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them said: "How can there be a resurrection of the dead, when there will be neither soul nor body, since they will be annihilated?" Others said: "Only the souls will have recompense, for bodies cannot rise and live again after a thousand years, when not even dust of them will remain." Then the Lord revealed the mystery of the expected resurrection of the dead and of the life to come through His seven youths.

The awakening

The owner of the plot of land on which Mount Ochlon lay began a stone building and the workmen opened the entrance of the cave. The Lord raised the youths, and they awoke as from an ordinary sleep, not suspecting that almost two hundred years had passed. Their bodies and clothes were wholly incorrupt. Preparing to receive torments, the youths asked Saint Iamblichus to buy bread once more in the city, to strengthen their forces. Approaching the city, the youth was amazed to see the holy cross on the gates. Hearing the Name of Jesus Christ freely spoken, he doubted that he had come to his own city. Paying for the bread, the saint gave the merchant a coin with the image of Emperor Decius and was detained, as one concealing a treasure of ancient coins. Saint Iamblichus was brought to the governor of the city, with whom the bishop of Ephesus was at that time. Listening to the youth's bewildered answers, the bishop understood that God was revealing a mystery through him and went himself with the people to the cave. At the entrance to the cave the bishop took from the heap of stones the sealed casket and opened it. He read on the tin tablets the names of the seven youths and the circumstances of the walling-⁠up of the cave by order of Emperor Decius. Entering the cave and seeing the youths alive there, all rejoiced and understood that the Lord, by awakening them from a long sleep, was revealing to the Church the mystery of the resurrection of the dead. Soon the emperor himself came to Ephesus and spoke with the youths in the cave. Then the holy youths, before all, bowed their heads to the ground and fell asleep again, this time until the general resurrection. The emperor wished to lay each of the youths in a precious shrine, but the holy youths, appearing to him in a dream, told him to leave their bodies in the cave, on the ground. In the twelfth century the Russian abbot Daniel, a pilgrim, saw in the cave these holy relics of the seven youths.

The second commemoration of the seven youths is kept on 22 October. According to a tradition that entered the Russian Prologue, the youths fell asleep a second time on that day; according to a note of a Greek Menaion of 1870, they fell asleep the first time on 4 August and awoke on 22 October. The holy youths are also mentioned in the service of the beginning of the church year, on 1 September.