The Seven Sleepers were the heroes of a celebrated legend, which is first related in the West by Gregory of Tours in the close of the sixth century, but the date of which is assigned to the third century, and at the persecution of the Christians under Decius. According to the story, during the flight of the Christians from the persecution, seven Christians of Ephesus took refuge in a cave near the city, where they were discovered by their pursuers, who walled up the entrance in order to starve them to death. They fell instead into a preternatural sleep, in which they lay for nearly two hundred years. This is supposed to have taken place in 250 or 251; and it was not till the reign of Theodosius II. (447) that they awoke. They imagined that their sleep had been but of a single night; and one of the seven went secretly into the city to purchase provisions, and he was amazed to see the cross erected on the churches and other buildings. Offering a coin of Decius in a baker's shop he was arrested, his startling story not being believed until he guided the citizens to the cavern where he had left his comrades. The emperor heard from their lips enough to convince him of the life beyond the grave of the dead, whereupon they sank again to sleep till the resurrection.

Gregory explains that his story is of Syrian origin - it is widely current in the East, and was adopted by Mahommed, who even admits their dog Kitmer also into Paradise. The Roman Catholic Church holds their festival on June 27.