The subject of this piece of glass is the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, the third century youths who escaped the Decian persecutions by hidng in a cavern near Ephesus. According to legend, they miraculously awoke two or three hundred years later. Reading from the upper left of the glass paste, the saints are inscribed as (C)OS(T)AN(T)INOS; right - (MASIMI)ANUS; lower left - (IO)NS (abbreviation of Iohannes); right - MALC(HUS); bottom left - (MARTI)NIAN(US); center - DANESIU(S) for Dionysius. Part of the nimbus of Serapion and the SR from the inscription can be seen at the far bottom right.

Collection of Martha M. Mullin, Los Angeles, CA (d. 2005) by 1964;

Taylor Crosby, Sheridan, WY, by descent;

Purchase 2021, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, D.C.