Medieval epics identify him as the son of King Gudfred, an enemy of Charlemagne. Holger Danske, aka Holger (or Ogier) the Dane, was a Viking warrior who fought with Charles Martel against the Muslims at Poitiers in AD 732. Having thus provided evidence of the reality of bodily resurrection to the emperor, the Seven finally died. In the cave, all fell into a miraculous sleep, only to be roused when the cave was reopened during the reign of Theodosius II (408–450). In the sixth century, Gregory of Tours said that this dust was used to cure the sick.Īlso in Ephesus lay the “Seven Sleepers,” purportedly seven Christian soldiers who hid in a cave to escape the persecution of Emperor Decius. Augustine, writing in 416, claimed that some “serious people” had seen the dust in John’s tomb scattered and blown upward by the apostle’s breathing. Others believed that he is merely sleeping in his tomb awaiting the Second Coming. One told of how he ascended to Heaven alive like Enoch and Elijah. The bishop of Ephesus, Polycrates, spoke of his tomb in the city.Įarly traditions, however, state that John wasn’t really dead. John was believed to have died in Ephesus at the end of the first century, making him about 100 years old at the time. Tradition holds that he wrote the Book of Revelation while imprisoned on the isle of Patmos during the reign of Emperor Domitian (AD 95–96) and wrote the Gospel at Ephesus in Asia Minor. He reportedly escaped unharmed after being thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil and was the only apostle who wasn’t martyred. John was indeed the longest-lived of Christ’s twelve apostles. When the apostle Peter asked Jesus what would become of his beloved disciple, John, Jesus replied, “So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee?” It was explained that Jesus didn’t necessarily mean that John would live until the Second Coming, but that was exactly how some later Christians interpreted Jesus’s words.