The Emperor Theodosius II was the Roman ruler who, in the year 431, summoned the great Council of Ephesus to our city — and in whose reign, by ancient legend, the famous Seven Sleepers of Ephesus are said to have awoken from their centuries-long sleep.
Theodosius II ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for over forty years from Constantinople, and Ephesus loomed large in his story. He called the council of 431 that defined the title of the Virgin Mary as Mother of God, and a few years later approved a second, stormier council in the same city. And it was during his reign, the legend says, that the seven young Christians who had slept in a cave above Ephesus awoke as a sign of the resurrection of the dead.
He should not be confused with his grandfather, Theodosius I “the Great,” who a generation earlier had made Christianity the official religion of the empire and outlawed the old pagan cults — a turning point that hastened the end of the worship of Artemis here at Ephesus. Between these two emperors, the Ephesus of the gods finally gave way to the Ephesus of the Church.
From the ruined Church of Mary to the hillside of the Seven Sleepers, the age of Theodosius is written all over Ephesus. To explore it with a licensed local guide, find me at theephesus.com or toursaroundturkey.com.
