Seven Sleepers

British  

plural noun

1. seven Christian youths from Ephesus who were walled up in a cave by the Emperor Decius in 250 _ad and, according to legend, slept for 187 years

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Example Sentences

Of The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus: "One is inclined to think that almost all Christians now have taken them for patron-saints."

From Time Magazine Archive

A little sob ended the entreaty, and as though he understood every word she had spoken Apache gave a neigh loud enough to waken the Seven Sleepers.

From A Dixie School Girl by Jackson, Gabrielle E. (Gabrielle Emilie)

Gregory also left a life of St Andrew, translated from the Greek, and a history of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, translated from Syriac.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 5 "Greek Law" to "Ground-Squirrel" by Various

It may afford, perhaps, a lively illustration of the principle here insisted upon, if I recall to the reader's recollection the legend of the Seven Sleepers.

From Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

Mohammed probably was unconscious that this is to all intents and purposes the same story as that of the Seven Sleepers, to which he refers in the chapter on the Cave.

From The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology by Hartland, Edwin Sidney