August: Day 4: The Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Exakoustodianos, Iamblichus, Martinian, Dionysios, Antoninus and John

August: Day 4:
The Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Exakoustodianos (also known as Constantine), Iamblichus, Martinian, Dionysios, Antoninus and John
 
(On the Resurrection of the Dead)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Seven Martyred Youths, who are celebrated today, were the children of renowned citizens of the city of Ephesus, young warriors who lived during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius. This was a dreadful persecution. Many Christians were hiding outside the city, in caves. Among them were the seven youths whom the Church remembers today, who, hiding from the persecution, left the city and settled in a cave on Mount Ochlon to prepare themselves through fasting and prayer for their trials for the faith. Upon learning of this, Decius ordered the entrance to the cave to be blocked with stones. Among the stones, two courtiers, secretly professing the Christian faith, named Theodore and Rufinus, placed tin tablets, inscribing on them the names of the seven youths buried alive in the cave. Meanwhile, through His inscrutable decrees, God sent upon them a deathlike sleep and preserved them incorruptible and unchanged for their miraculous awakening in His glory and as a testament to the truth of His word, two centuries later.

Saint John the Dwarf's Early 5th Century Reference to the Seven Youths of Ephesus

The following excerpt is from the Life of Saint Paisios the Great written by his disciple Saint John the Dwarf in the early 5th century, and is one of the earliest references to the Seven Youths of Ephesus. They are mentioned in the context of Saint John describing how it was possible by God's grace to preserve Saint Paisios alive when he didn't eat for seventy consecutive days, just as the Seven Youths of Ephesus were preserved alive while sleeping for many decades.