Sacramento daily record-union., 1880-12-07
THE SEVEN sLEEPERs BY THE LOIRE.

The Seven Sleepers are said to have
come as pilgrims from the far East-Syria,
according to the usual version-that they
might receive the blessing of st. Martin.
They found the saint passing most of his
time in small cavern. They occupied
one near it. One day they received from
ST. Martin the eucharist, and presently
fell asleep. There was no appearance of
death they remained in breathless, mo.
tionless slumber for weeks, months; and
then, though there was no decay, it was
thought right to lay them in hollow rock
tombs. And here was shown the seven
graves cut in the floor each is shaped
somewhat like all the Templars' tombs.
At the door of the grotto there was tomb
of great antiquity, covered by stone slab
which left hole at one corner. Looking
through this l perceived a skeleton which
had no coffin. 1t is not improbable, there
fore, that these graves have been repeat
edly used for hermlts of special sanctity.
After they passed from their living to their
literal burial, these sanity solitaires have
often for the first time begun to exercise
influence upon men. Legends take root
in their graves, floating fables adopt them
as fathers, and so ultimately they rise
again as myths, their bones are distributed
as charms, and they enter upon more
real existence than when they dwelt above
the sod as if they were already beneath it.
On the ceiling of the Seven Sleepers' Grot,
when saw it in the summer Of 1878, there
were still discernible the fading splendors
of the sky and heavenly bodies with which
it had been decorated. But whoever may
slumber. Time and Nature sleep not. The
front of the chapel has been designed by
Nj. pAbbe Brisacier, in accordance with
structure which existed in the same place in
the eleventh century. During the severe
winter which preceded, the ceiling of the
cavehadfallen-as it felltwice before lin the
eleventh and again in the seventeenth GEN.
tury) and of all the interior decorations |
could now discover only a lily, star,
faint tipge of blue sky. These decorations
had been copied from the earliest ages
The fall of this roof and removal of the
debris laid bare large number of bones,
some of which were in such a position as
to be almost of geological interest. 1t
looks as if so early as the tenth century,
perhaps, the place was regarded as sa-
cred one for burial. The catastrophe
brought out the fact that the ingenious
Able Brisacier, of Tours, had about the
same time discovered in the episcopal
archives the names of the Seven Sleepers.
These names will now be connected with
seven figures, which will have to be
evolved from somebody's inner conscious
ness, on seven stained windows now being
made for the little chapel which has been
built. The names, which have been kindly
sent me by the Able Brisacier, are Glenn
ems, Primus, Letus, Theodorus, Cyriadius,
Godantius and Innocentius. Yon great
gateway of Marmoutier, from which Ur-
ban III. preached the crusade, and so
earned such saintship as the nineteenth
century Vatican can recognize, is a noble
piece of architecture, but it has beneath
its turret an oubliette, recently sealed,
down which human victims were hurled to
depth not yet fathomed; there are two
westward towers also that are graceful
but it was the place of execution when the
lords of Marmoutier were the judges, and
thew seem even now studded with human
heads. The glory of this, the oldest and
most aristocratic convent in Northern Eu.
rope, after all, hovers about these grottoes,
where Gatien and Martin and dear st. Pat.
rick passed much of their time.