Today the Church commemorates the miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae (present-day Honaz, in Turkey), which took place in the second century.
The Holy Apostles Philip and Bartholomew preached the Gospel in Colossae. After converting many pagans to Christ, they foretold that this place would be visited by the commander of the heavenly hosts, the holy Archangel Michael. Soon afterward, by the Lord’s providence, a spring of healing water miraculously appeared at the site.
Day after day the sick came to the spring and were healed. Many who received their health were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity.
A pagan Greek, grieving because his daughter had been mute from birth, was told in a dream that she would be healed at the spring of the Archangel Michael. Trembling, he rose and brought her there. Seeing the afflicted restored as they drank and washed in the water, he asked whose name they invoked. The Christians answered that they called upon the Holy Trinity. Without hesitation he believed. As they entreated the Lord and drank from the spring, he himself was healed, and his daughter received the gift of speech.
In thanksgiving he built a church in honor of the Archangel Michael beside the spring. Years later a pious man named Archippus was appointed its guardian. He labored there in fasting and prayer.
Envious of the miracles and of Archippus’s holiness, the pagans sought to destroy both church and spring. They planned to join the Lykokastros and Kouphos rivers, which encircled the site, and send their combined flood down upon it.
Archippus perceived their intent and prayed. The Archangel Michael appeared, struck the rock with his staff, and opened a fissure. He commanded the rushing waters to pour into it. The church was preserved. From that time the place was called Chonae—“plunging”—because the river plunged into the cleft in the rock.
