John of Ephesus

Saint John of Ephesus is one of the seven youths of Ephesus, commemorated together with Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, Dionysius, Exacustodianus (Constantine) and Antoninus. They lived in the third century. Maximilian was the son of the governor of the city, and the other six were sons of other noble citizens of Ephesus. Friends from childhood, they all served in the army.

When the emperor Decius (249 to 251) came to Ephesus, he ordered all citizens to come and offer sacrifice to the gods, and the disobedient were to face torments and death. On the denunciation of those seeking the emperor's favour, the seven youths were summoned as well. Standing before the emperor, they confessed their faith in Christ. Their military insignia, the soldiers' belts, were taken from them at once. Decius nevertheless let them go free, hoping that they would change their minds while he was away 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, Iamblichus, dressed in a beggar's rags, went into the city and bought bread. On one of these trips he heard that the emperor had returned and that they were being sought. Maximilian encouraged his friends to come out of the cave and appear at the trial of their own will. Learning where they were hiding, the emperor ordered the entrance of the cave walled up with stones, so that the youths might die in it 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 put among the stones a sealed casket, in which were two tin tablets with the names of the seven and the circumstances of their sufferings and death.

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

The owner of the land on which Mount Ochlon lay began a stone building, and the workmen opened the entrance of the cave. The Lord raised the youths up, and they woke as from an ordinary sleep, not knowing that almost two hundred years had passed. Their bodies and clothes were wholly uncorrupted. Preparing to take up the torments, they sent 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 began to doubt that he had come to his own city. Paying for the bread, he gave the dealer a coin with the likeness of the emperor Decius and was detained on suspicion of hiding a treasure of old coins. He was taken to the governor of the city, with whom the bishop of Ephesus then was. Listening to the youth's puzzled answers, the bishop understood that God was revealing a mystery through him and went himself with the people to the cave. At the entrance he took the sealed casket from the heap of stones and opened it. He read on the tin tablets the names of the seven and the circumstances of the walling up of the cave at the command of the emperor Decius. Entering the cave and seeing the youths alive, all rejoiced and understood that the Lord, by waking them from their 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 bowed their heads to the ground before all and fell asleep again, this time until the general resurrection. The emperor wished to put each in a precious reliquary, but the saints appeared to him in a dream and ordered that their bodies be left in the cave, on the ground. In the twelfth century the Russian hegumen 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 in a Greek Menaion of 1870, they first fell asleep on 4 August and woke on 22 October. The holy youths are also mentioned in the service of the beginning of the church year, on 1 September. Their commemoration falls on 17 August and on 4 November, in the new style.