Seven Sleepers
Sign in to savestory in Christian folklore and the Qur'an
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"Seven Sleepers" is a religious story found in both Christian folklore and the Islamic Qur'an about a group of young men who miraculously slept for an extraordinarily long time. The story matters because it appears in multiple faith traditions and has been interpreted by believers as evidence of divine power and protection across centuries.
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Decius orders the walling in of the Seven sleepers From a 14th-century manuscript. The Seven Sleepers (Greek: ἑπτὰ κοιμώμενοι, romanized: hepta koimōmenoi; Latin: Septem dormientes), also known in Christianity as the 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 legend, and a Qur'anic Islamic story. It speaks about a group of youths who hid inside a cave around the year 250 AD to escape Roman persecutions of Christians and emerged many years later. The Qur'anic version of the story appears in Sura 18 (18:9–26).
The Seven Sleepers have been venerated as Christian saints since at least the 5th century as the "Holy Seven Youths" (Άγιοι Επτά Παίδες) in the Orthodox church; in the Catholic Church, they are venerated individually.
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3rd-century Christian saintsAncient EphesiansChristianity and IslamDecian persecutionDogs in religionGroups of Christian martyrs of the Roman eraGroups of Roman Catholic saintsInterlanguage link template existing linkLegendary Greek peopleMedieval legendsQuranic narrativesRip Van Winkle-type stories