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Extreme TBI),
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Make a
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... were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?
John Donne; 'The good-morrow'
July
27 | Feast
day of Saints Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and
Constantine, the Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus
These Christian
saints
were Ephesians (ie, from Ephesus in Turkey),
walled up by Roman
EmperorDecius(249 - 251) in a cave for their
faith, in 250 CE. They were
found by masons in 479, and
were only asleep, and thought that they had been asleep only one night,
instead of 229 years.
Rubbing from his eyes the sleep of
more than two centuries, Malchus made his way into town to buy bread for the
others, and was amazed to see crosses on buildings, for when he fell asleep
Decius’s Roman gods
were all that could be worshipped. The bakers were amazed at the coins he
offered, and thought that the young man had found treasure.
When Malchus saw them talking together, he was afraid that
they might take him before the emperor, and asked to be let go, saying they
could keep the strange money – and the bread. The bakers said if he would
share the treasure they wouldn’t tell anyone, but Malchus was so afraid he
couldn’t speak. The bakers tied a cord around his neck and dragged him
through the city, where all the citizens abused him, saying that he had
found a treasure and was keeping it secret.
The outraged townsfolk (no doubt brandishing torches)
brought him before St Martin and Antipater. Malchus reaffirmed that it was
his money and he’d got it from members of his family, but, of course, his
interrogators had not heard of these relatives, and asked how he could have
money hundreds of years old.
The bishop Martin took Malchus up to the cave of which the
youth spoke, and was amazed by the sight, six more young men yawning over
their Froot Loops*, “theyr visages lyke unto roses flouryng”, as a
medieval chronicler wrote.
It wasn’t long
before the emperor came from Constantinople and saw the young saints, whose
“vysages shone like to the sonne”. He commanded that there be built
sepulchres of gold and silver for them, but they came to him that night and
asked that their bodies be allowed to lie on the earth, which he did for
them … and there they died like the rest of us will. Or, so it is said.
This Christianized version of an older legend was already current in the
6th Century. Perhaps the most ingenuous was written in Syriac about 500
by Saint James of Sarugh. Saint Gregory of
Tours spread the story to Europe. Its popularity was heightened in Medieval
Europe when it was included in The Golden
Legend by the Dominican Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230 -
'98).
Butler’s Lives of the
Saintstells us the relics of the Seven Sleepers are
preserved in a large stone coffin in the church of St Victor,
Marseilles. The cave they were uncovered in was a shrine for pilgrims
until modern times.
*Froot
Loops. If you click and enter, you’ll hear an Australian kookaburra,
apparently as the sound for a toucan. The laughing sound of kookaburras is
frequently used in Hollywood movies as background sound for jungle scenes. Not
Australian jungles, of which there are many, but African, South American and
Asian rainforests, usually.
The legend has an echo in the Koran. In the holy book of Islam, the seven men of Ephesus slept for 309 years and were
accompanied by a dog, Kratim (aka Al Rakim, Katmir or Ketmir). This canine became a
great prophet and philosopher after its sleep, and it dwells in the
Moslem paradise next to the ass of Balaam. The other eight
animals there are the ant of Solomon, the whale of Jonah, the ram of
Isaac, the calf of Abraham, the camel of Saleh, the cuckoo of Belkis,
the ox of Moses and the mare of Mohammed (named Borak).
Other sleepers
The long sleep is a common theme of myth and
folklore, and the 'King in the
Mountain' is a common myth motif. King
Arthur is the most famous, and he is said to be merely sleeping
until his country is in dire need, whereupon he will return.
Wales also
has two other sleepers. In 1378, Welsh chieftain Owain
Lawgoch died, but legend claims he still
sleeps in a cave in southern Wales, his warriors protecting him, waiting
to return to fight for his country's liberation. Yet another Welsh
sleeper is Owain Glendower(Owain Glyn Dwr, 1359-1416) the last Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. Glendower led Wales to fight for its
independence in 1400, but he lost the campaign and his life. He is
said to still sleep in Castle Cave in Gwent waiting, with his warriors,
to be awakened to fight and finally gain Welsh independence.Frederick
Barbarossa (pictured at left) is another famous 'King in the Mountain', as is St Wenceslas.
Portugal's
legend of Don
Sebastian(King Sebastião I of Portugal; January
20, 1554
- August 4, 1578),
a missing leader who will return to liberate his people, is one with a
variant of this motif, and led to a cult that continued in one form or
another until modern times. In Brazil, there was a legend that Don Sebastian appears in the form of a
black bull on the beaches of mysterious Lencois Island, off the coast of
Maranhao. Many Brazilians believed that the king would return to help
them against the 'godless' Brazilian Republic.
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Slowly but slowly asking my way through the underpants
.
July
27 
