The day of the Seven Sleepers

It started raining in the morning yesterday.
Well, this might not be important in most cases, but yesterday was no an ordinary day.
In some parts of Europe, in fact, 27 June is marked as “the day of the Seven Sleepers”, and no, It is not a day to linger in bed at all.
In Germany, for example, the weather on “Siebenschläfer” is seen as indicative of what sort of summer we can expect.
If a stable weather on 27 June bodes well for the weeks ahead, bad weather indicates that rain rather than sun is in store for July and August.
So, if yesterday was an awful day, weather-wise, those with faith in folklore now fear we’re in for a lousy summer.

Believe it or not, meteorologists tell us that there is a shred of science in the folk wisdom which surrounds the Seven Sleepers.
If a stable high-pressure cell has been established over northern Europe by late June or early July, then there’s a good chance that it will prevail for some weeks, as there’s no better way of fending off moisture-laden winds from the west than by having a big anticyclone blocking their progress across the Old Continent.

So far, it sounds good.
But folklore across Europe varies from country to country. The French, on the other hand, favour the Feast of St Medard on 8 June as a predictor of meteorological fortune:
“Quand il pleut à la Saint-Médard, il pleut quarante jours plus tard”, in short, a rainy day heralds forty days of rain to follow, while in French and Belgian Flanders, farmers have more faith in St Godelieve, on 6 July.
Across the Channel in England, the weather on Saint Swithin’s Day is a marker of what to expect for the following six weeks. If it pours on 15 July, don’t plan your beach holidays in England!

Either way, the story of Seven Sleepers is one of the richest pieces of folklore in Europe, and It is most famously recounted in the Qur’an (Surah 8, verse 7ff). The Sleepers, with a dog in this version of the story, slept for 300 years, but their story, usually without dog, appears also in English poetry, German votive paintings and Russian icons, and tale has become part of the folk mythology of Catholic Europe.
And in Germany, where there is such a strong weather folklore around the Seven Sleepers, the final blessing at Sunday Mass would, in many communities, have included a petition for some better weather.
After all that rain yesterday, it might take some divine intervention to bring a good July!

But who exactly are the Seven Sleepers?
Actually the first account of this legend has Syrian origins, coming from the 5th-century bishop Jacob of Sarug, but the most popular version is that of the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Varagine.
As story goes, during the rule of the Roman emperor Decius, seven young men of Ephesus were accused of being Christians.
Western tradition calls them Maximian, Malchus, Marcian, John, Denis, Serapion, and Constantine, while for Eastern tradition they are Maximilian, Jamblichus, Martin, John, Dionysius, Antonius, and Constantine.
In any case, being that a time of harsh persecution towards Christianity, they were asked to recant their faith upon pain of their life.
The seven, however, decided to retire to a mountain cave where they fell asleep while praying.
When they were found out, the cave was sealed and the young men trapped forever. After 200 (or 300) years, however, the sealed mouth of the cave was reopened by the landowner and, to his surprise, the seven men were still there, still sleeping.
As they woke up from their long slumber, they were astounded to find that so many years had passed, since they thought they had slept but a couple of days.
What surprised them the most, however, was that Christianity was now not only accepted – but it was the very official religion of the Empire. The local bishop was called to investigate and, being told their story, acknowledge the miracle.
The Seven Sleepers finally died on the very same day of their awakening, once again praising God.
The version of this story that appears in the Qur’an is thus important to Islam as well, who refers to the men as “The People of the Cave”.