The Seven Sleepers (; ), also known in Christendom as Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and in Islam as Aṣḥāb al-Kahf (اصحاب الکهف, ''aṣḥāb al-kahf'', lit. Companions of the Cave), is a late antique

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

legend, and a Qur’anic

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic story. The Christian legend speaks about a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

(modern-day Selçuk,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) around AD 250 to escape Roman persecutions of Christians and emerged many years later. The

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

ic version of the story appears in Sura 18 ( 18:9–26). The Seven Sleepers have been venerated as Christian saints since at least the fifth century as the "Holy Seven Youths" (Άγιοι Επτά Παίδες) in the Orthodox church; in the Catholic Church, they are venerated individually."The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus." In The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. Retrieved from https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05496a.htm

Origins and propagation

The story appeared in several Syriac sources before

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...

's lifetime (538–594). The earliest Syriac manuscript copy is in MS Saint-Petersburg No. 4, which dates to the fifth century.Witold Witakowski
"Sleepers of Ephesus, Legend of the"
in ''Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition'', edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay (Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018). The earliest known version of this story is found in the writings of the Syriac bishop Jacob of Serugh (–521), who relies on an earlier Greek source, now lost. Jacob of Serugh, an Edessan poet-theologian, wrote a homily in verse on the subject of the Seven Sleepers, which was published in the '' Acta Sanctorum''. Another sixth-century version, in a Syrian manuscript in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

(''Cat. Syr. Mss'', p. 1090), gives eight sleepers. Whether the original account was written in Syriac or Greek was a matter of debate, but today a Greek original is generally accepted.Bartłomiej Grysa
"The Legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in Syriac and Arab Sources: A Comparative Study"
''Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia'' 2 (2010): 45–59. The pilgrim account '' De situ terrae sanctae'', written between 518 and 531, records the existence of a church dedicated to the sleepers in Ephesus. An outline of this tale appears in the 6th-century writings of

and in ''History of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

'' of

Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, sc ...

(720–799). The best-known Western version of the story appears in Jacobus de Voragine's '' Golden Legend'' (1259–1266). It also appears in BHO (''Pueri septem''), BHG (''Pueri VII'') and BHL ''Dormientes (Septem) Ephesi''. 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 104

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

manuscripts, 40 Greek, 33

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, 17 Syriac, six Ethiopic, five Coptic, two

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

, one

Middle Irish Middle Irish, also called Middle Gaelic (, , ), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of Late Old English and Early Middle English. The modern Goideli ...

, and one

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

. Byzantine writer Symeon the Metaphrast (died c. 1000) alluded to it. It was also translated into Sogdian. In the 13th century, the poet Chardri composed an

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th Persian, Kyrgyz language">Kyrgyz, and Tatar language">Tatar.

Dissemination in the West: story and relics

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)''. 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. During the period of the Crusades, bones from the sepulchres near Ephesus, identified as relics of the Seven Sleepers, were transported to Marseille, France, in a large stone coffin, which remained a trophy of the Abbey of St Victor, Marseille. The Seven Sleepers were included in the '' Golden 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.

Christian story

The story says that during the persecution of Christians, persecutions by the Roman emperor

Decius Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius ( 201June 251), known as Trajan Decius or simply Decius (), was Roman emperor from 249 to 251. A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was proclaimed emperor by his troops a ...

, around AD 250, seven young men were accused of following

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. They were given some time to recant their faith, but they 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 towards

paganism Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

had not improved, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed. Decius died in 251, and many years passed during which Christianity went from being persecuted to being the state religion of the Roman Empire. At some later time—usually given as during the reign of

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called "the Calligraphy, Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the ...

(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. Upon arriving in the city, this person was astounded to find buildings with crosses attached; the townspeople for their part 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. The various lives of the Seven Sleepers in Greek and in other non-Latin languages are listed at ''BHO''.

Account in the Quran

The polytheists ('' mushriks'') of

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, after consulting with the people of the Book, tested Muhammad by asking him three questions, and Surah Al-Kahf was sent down in answer to them. The ''mushriks'' inquired about the identity of the Sleepers of the Cave, the real story of Khidr, and about Dhu al-Qarnayn. The story of the Companions of the Cave () is referred to in Surah Al-Kahf ( Quran 18:9-26). The precise number of the sleepers is not stated. The Quran furthermore points to the fact 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 that: "My Sustainer knows best how many they were". 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 here" The 9 years are often interpreted as the difference between solar and lunar years. The Quran says that the sleepers included a dog, which Islamic tradition names as Qitmir, who guarded the entrance of the cave (verse 18).

Number and names

Jewish and Christian versions

Early versions do not all agree on or even specify the number of sleepers. Some Jewish circles and the Christians of Najran believed in only three brothers; the East Syriac, five. Most Syriac accounts have eight, including a nameless watcher which God sets over the sleepers. A 6th-century Latin text titled "Pilgrimage of Theodosius" featured the sleepers as seven people in number, with a dog named Viricanus.Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2018). ''The Qur'an and the Bible: Text and Commentary''. Yale University Press, p. 454. Bartłomiej Grysa lists at least seven different sets of names for the sleepers: * Maximian, Martinian, Dionisius, John, Constantine, Malchus, Serapion * Maximilian, Martinian, Dionisius, John, Constantine, Malkhus, Serapion, Anthony * Maximilian, Martinian, Dionisius, John, Constantine, Yamblikh (Iamblichus), Anthony * Makṯimilīnā (Maksimilīnā, Maḥsimilīnā), Marnūš (Marṭūs), Kafašṭaṭyūš (Ksōṭōnos), Yamlīḫā (Yamnīḫ), Mišlīnā, Saḏnūš, Dabranūš (Bīrōnos), Samōnos, Buṭōnos, Qālos (according to aṭ-Ṭabarī and ad-Damīrī) * Achillides, Probatus, Stephanus, Sambatus, Quiriacus, Diogenus, Diomedes (according to Gregory of Tours) * Ikilios, Fruqtis, Istifanos, Sebastos, Qiryaqos, Dionisios (according to Michael the Syrian) * Aršellītīs, Probatios, Sabbastios, Stafanos, Kīriakos, Diōmetios, Avhenios (according to the Coptic version) In the modern Orthodox Church, they are named * Μαξιμιλιανός (Maximilian), Ἰάμβλιχος (Iamblichus), Μαρτινιανός (Martinian), Διονύσιος (Dionysius), Ἀντωνῖνος (Antoninus) (or Ἰωάννης (John)), Κωνσταντῖνος (Constantine), and Ἐξακουστοδιανός (Exacoustodian); and in the modern Catholic Church, as * Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, Joannes, Serapion, and Constantinus.*

Islamic view

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.

Duration

Christian accounts

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). Other calculations suggest 195.

Islamic accounts

The Qu'ran says 300 years "and nine more". The nine more may account for the difference between solar and lunar calendars.

Caves of the Seven Sleepers

Several sites are attributed as the "Cave of the Seven Sleepers", but none could empirically convince to be the original site associated with the legend. As the earliest versions of the legend spread out from

, an early Christian catacomb in that area came to be associated with it, attracting scores of pilgrims. On the slopes of Mount Pion (Mount Coelian) near Ephesus (near modern Selçuk in Turkey), the grotto of the Seven Sleepers with ruins of the religious site built over it was excavated in 1926–1928. 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 and Afşin and Tarsus, Turkey. Afşin is near the antique Roman city of Arabissus, to which the East Roman Emperor

Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

paid a visit. The site was a Hittite temple, used as a Roman temple and later as a church in Roman and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

times. The Emperor brought marble niches from Western Anatolia as gifts for it, which are preserved inside the Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye mosque to this day. The Seljuks 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. There is a cave near

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, Jordan, also known as the Cave of Seven Sleepers, which has eight smaller sealed tombs present inside and a ventilation duct coming out of the cave.Cave of the Seven Sleepers
(at

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)

List of notable sites

Asia Minor

* ,

, Turkey * Eshab-ı Kehf Cave, Tarsus, Turkey * Grotto of the Seven Sleepers,

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, Turkey * Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye, outside Afşin, Turkey * Ashabi-Kahf in Nakhchivan,

Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (, ) is a landlocked country, landlocked Enclave and exclave, exclave of the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. The region covers Official portal of Nakhchivan Autonomous RepublicNakhchivan Autonomous Republi ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Middle East and North Africa

* Mar Musa, monastery in Syria * Mount Qasioun, Damascus, Syria * Cave of the Seven Sleepers, Al-Rajeb (Greater Amman), Jordan * Mosquée de Sept Dormants, Chenini,

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

China

* Tuyuq Khojam Mazar,

Turpan Turpan () or Turfan ( zh, s=吐鲁番) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 693,988 (2020). The historical center of the ...

, China

Gallery

File:Seven Sleeper Cave Entrance.jpg, Entrance to the cave, near

, Jordan File:Graves of the cave of seven sleepers.jpeg, Graves in the Cave of the Seven Sleepers, Jordan File:Cave of seven sleepers.jpeg, Nameplate of the cave, Jordan File:Seven-sleepers efesus turkey.jpg, The cave in

, Turkey File:Eshab-ı Kehf - panoramio.jpg, Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye in Afşin with the cave inside, Turkey File:137 Yediuyurlar.Tarsus.07.2006 resize.JPG, Eshab-ı Kehf Cave in Tarsus, Turkey

Modern literature

Early modern

The account had become proverbial in 16th century Protestant culture. The poet

John Donne John Donne ( ; 1571 or 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under Royal Patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's, D ...

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". In John Heywood's ''Play called the Four PP'' (1530s), the Pardoner, a Renaissance update of the protagonist in Chaucer's " The Pardoner's Tale", offers his companions the opportunity to kiss "a slipper / Of one of the Seven Sleepers", but 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." Little is heard of the Seven Sleepers during the Enlightenment, but the account revived with the coming of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. The ''Golden Legend'' may have been the source for retellings of the Seven Sleepers in Thomas de Quincey's '' Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'', in a poem by

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

, Washington Irving's " Rip van Winkle",

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

's '' The Sleeper Awakes''. It also might have an influence on the motif of the " King asleep in mountain".

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

did a burlesque of the story of the Seven Sleepers in Chapter 13 of Volume 2 of ''The Innocents Abroad''.

Contemporary

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...

gives different accounts of the story in ''

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', sometimes shortened to ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. The six volumes cover, from 98 to 1590, the peak of the Ro ...

''. The

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

n writer Danilo Kiš retells the story of the Seven Sleepers in a short story, "The Legend of the Sleepers", from his book '' The Encyclopedia of the Dead''. The Italian author Andrea Camilleri incorporates the story in his novel '' The Terracotta Dog'' in which the protagonist is led to a cave containing the titular watchdog (as described in the ''Qur'an'' and called "Kytmyr" in Sicilian 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 lovers Lisetta Moscato and Mario 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. In Susan Cooper's '' The Dark Is Rising'' series, Will Stanton awakens the Seven Sleepers in '' The Grey King'', and in '' Silver on the Tree'', they ride in the last battle against the Dark. The ''Seven Sleepers'' series by Gilbert 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 John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. As a ...

refers to the Seven Sleepers in '' The Three Hostages'' in which Richard Hannay surmises that his wife Mary, who is a sound sleeper, is descended from one of the seven who has married one of the Foolish Virgins. The Seven Sleepers are mentioned in the song "Les Invisibles" on the 1988 Blue Öyster Cult album Imaginos. Several languages have idioms related to the Seven Sleepers, including: * Hungarian: ''hétalvó'', literally a "seven-sleeper", or "one who sleeps for an entire week", is a colloquial reference to a person who oversleeps or who is typically drowsy. * Irish: "Na seacht gcodlatáin" refers to hibernating animals. * Norwegian: a late riser may be referred to as a ''syvsover'' ("seven sleeper") * Swedish: a late riser may be referred to as a ''sjusovare'' ("seven sleeper"). * Welsh: a late riser may be referred to as a ''saith cysgadur'' ("seven sleeper") – as in the 1885 novel '' Rhys Lewis'' by Daniel Owen, where the protagonist is referred to as such in chapter 37, p. 294 (Hughes a'i Fab, Caerdydd, 1948).

Feast day

The most recent edition of the ''

Roman Martyrology The ''Roman Martyrology'' () is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved appendices to it. It provid ...

'' commemorates the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus under the date of 27 July.'' Martyrologium Romanum'', editio altera, (Typis Vaticanis, 2004, p. 416 ) The Byzantine calendar commemorates them with feasts on 4 August and 22 October.

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

calendars gives various dates: 21 April, 2 August, 13 August, 23 October and 24 October.

References

External links

Quran–Authorized English Version
The Cave- Sura 18 – Quran – Authorized English Version

''Butler's Lives of the Saints''

* Sura al-Kahf at Wikisource
Photos of the excavated site of the Seven Sleepers cult.

Gregory of Tours, The Patient Impassioned Suffering of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus translated by Michael Valerie
* The Lives of the Seven Sleepers from ''The Golden Legend'' by Jacobus de Voragine

* The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus by Chardri, translated into English by Tony Devaney Morinelli: Medieval Sourcebook

{{Authority control Medieval legends Legendary Greek people Saints from Roman Anatolia Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era Groups of Roman Catholic saints Quranic narratives Sleep in mythology and folklore 3rd-century Christian saints Rip Van Winkle-type stories Dogs in religion Decian dynasty Ancient Ephesians Septets in religion Christianity and Islam