Time travel is usually the preserve of science fiction and Hollywood action films. But it turns out that there is a similar story in the tradition of the Orthodox Church. Who are the seven Ephesian youths - seven noble youths who are transported into the distant future? And what did the Lord want to show by waking them up through the centuries, so that they would testify about a miracle?
During the reign of Emperor Decius, who ruled in the Roman Empire at the beginning of the second half of the 3rd century AD, Christians were persecuted. It also reached the large and wealthy city of Ephesus, located in the Asia Minor part of Greece. According to historians, "the blood of those tortured for their faith then poured like a river in the city squares."
At this time, seven young officers served in the local garrison, the sons of noble citizens of Ephesus - Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian and Antoninus. The first of them was generally the son of the city governor. However, young men in no way could be counted among those who are now commonly called majors. Having received faith in Christ, they led a pious and God-fearing life, praying, doing good to the poor and showing other deeds of mercy - apart from fulfilling their military duties, not out of fear, but out of conscience.
Once Decius himself arrived in Ephesus, having arranged a grandiose festival for local citizens in honor of the pagan gods. In such circumstances, it became impossible for young soldiers to evade participation in idolatry due to their position. And accused by denunciation of ill-wishers of belonging to Christianity, they publicly recognized themselves as believers in Christ.
The emperor boiled over, expelling the heroes of our story from the honorable military class. But he did not immediately give it up for torment, sparing their youth and beauty, and also taking into account their noble origin. Instead, he will invite the youths to think about their behavior - and still make a sacrifice to the pagan gods, or accept torment and death. Then he went to another city.
In anticipation of an unfair judgment, the young men decided to use the time allotted to them to prepare for the transition to eternal life. They generously distributed money to the poor and prayed incessantly. And then they decided to leave the city so that the pagans would not interfere with their pious pastime. For this, they chose a cave in Mount Okhlon near Ephesus - where they left, taking with them some money to buy food. The "messenger" for her purchase was Iamblichus - the youngest of them in age. Disguised in the rags of a beggar, so as not to be recognized, and regularly visiting the city, he not only bought provisions there for friends, but also scouted the situation.
In the end, Decius solemnly returned to Ephesus - and immediately remembered his "defendants with a suspended sentence." He was angry that the youths were missing, but rather quickly learned the place of their hiding from their pagan parents.
Meanwhile, the young men themselves, having learned that their tormentor had returned to the city, began to prepare for the final feat. But human nature naturally loves life and happiness, not death and suffering. You should not be ashamed of this - even the Lord, before His Crucifixion, prays to the Father: "May this cup pass me by!" - until bloody sweat.
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In the same way, young Christians, although they were ready to give their lives for Christ, put off this moment itself, perhaps without even realizing it. In the end, they decided, having sent Iamblichus to Ephesus the next day, to find out the specific situation - to what tortures the emperor had sentenced them - and, having mentally prepared for them, to appear at the trial. However, the merciful Lord, seeing their sincere desire to give their lives for Him, combined with purely human weakness, reasoned differently. The youths fell asleep - but they were destined to wake up very long ago …
Meanwhile, Decius, having learned where the disobedient to his will are, decided not to waste time on their public torture (with the banality of which he, apparently, was somewhat fed up at that time) - and decided to betray the disobedient Christians with a more sophisticated execution. And he ordered to fill up with stones the entrance to the cave so that those hiding in it would die a painful death from hunger and thirst. Two secret Christians from among the courtiers who were present at the execution of the royal sentence secretly wrote on tin tablets the names of those buried alive and the history of their sufferings for Christ.
Centuries have passed. After the adoption of Christianity under the Emperor Constantine the Great, his descendant Theodosius the Younger reigned in the first half of the 5th century on the throne of the Roman Empire. And the nobleman of Ephesus who lived at that time decided to build himself a new palace, stones for which they began to take from that very mountain Okhlon. In the end, the servants, without knowing it themselves, dismantled the entrance to the cave, where seven Christian youths were hiding from the wrath of the pagan emperor.
At that moment, the Lord allowed them to wake up. Actually, the Church celebrates this date today. The saints fell asleep on August 5 - another day of their memory. However, it would be an exaggeration to call this an awakening from an ordinary sleep. Yes, medicine knows many cases of lethargic sleep - but during it, patients need outside care, like in intensive care, otherwise they will die. Here, the young men who had been lying on cold stones for two centuries woke up completely healthy - and even their clothes did not decay from time to time.
Naturally, their first thought was to carry out their intended last reconnaissance to the city - to go to torture. Their friend Iamblichus, as usual, went to Ephesus - but was extremely surprised when he saw the sign of the cross on the gates of his hometown. However, the townspeople themselves, despite the universal adoption of Christianity, have changed little in their not quite pious customs. Not surprisingly, noticing how the unknown young man wanted to pay off at the bazaar for the food bought for his friends with an ancient coin, the local “hucksters” and the mayor began to threaten the newcomer from the past with torture, demanding to confess where he found the treasure.
Fortunately, during the interrogation of the captured youth, the local bishop was present, who persuaded the audience to go and check the words of Imavlich about his friends. Approaching the entrance to the cave, they also found a tin tablet with a description of the exploits of seven youths under the emperor Decius.
The story described had the effect of a bomb exploding on the then world. Which broke, by the way, quite in time - by the middle of the 5th century, heretics appeared in the Church akin to the Sadducees of the Gospel times.
Some of them said that behind the grave people cannot count on reward, since not only the body but also the soul is destroyed after death, while others argued that souls will have their reward, but the bodies will still decay, perish forever.
“How can,” they said, “these bodies rise up after whole millennia, when their very dust is gone?
This is how the heretics thought, in their stubbornness forgetting the words of Christ in the Gospel: “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and when they hear, they will live” (John 5:25), and the prophet Daniel wrote: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken alone for eternal life, others for eternal reproach and shame "(Dan.12: 2), - and the prophet Ezekiel, speaking on behalf of God:" Behold, I will open your graves and bring you out, my people, out of your graves "(Ezek. 37:12).
Not to mention the doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead, which is very clearly described in the Epistles of St. Paul to the Ephesians, as well as in the famous Apocalypse ap. Ionna the Theologian.
And against the background of these heretical philosophies, a living confirmation appears that the bodies of the saints, for two whole centuries, representing dust, have regained the spirit of life. It is not surprising that soon the emperor Theodosius himself urgently arrived in Ephesus, personally communicating in the cave with aliens from the distant past. And those, having spent a whole week in soulful instructions both to the crown bearer and to other people, in the end fell asleep again. This time - already before the General Resurrection, which will take place after the Second Glorious Coming of Christ.
This is how the Lord, by His Providence and omnipotent intervention, simultaneously solved several important tasks. He saved those who truly love Him and the believers from unbearable torments for Himself, but nevertheless several weak physically young men - nevertheless, without depriving them of the longed-for martyr's crown, by the order of which they are, in fact, glorified. After all, Decius doomed them to a painful death in a littered cave in all seriousness - and it is not the fault of this monster that his plan misfired thanks to God's intervention.
And besides, the resurrected youths once again served Christ, proving to the whole Christian world that the bodily Resurrection of the dead is not an outdated pious fairy tale, but a real reality, not without reason confessed in the penultimate sentence of the Creed.
Well, besides this, of course, the holy martyrs are revered by believers as the best helpers in the fight against insomnia. And the truth is - who else can help to find a healing sleep for several hours, if not those who have slept a wonderful dream for two centuries?
So in case of insomnia, and in other cases, you can always appeal to these ancient martyrs with a prayer: "Holy youths of Ephesus - pray to God for us!"
YURI NOSOVSKY