The Orthodox Church commemorates today the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae and Martyrs Andrew, Andronikos the Soldier, Andropelagia, and Thecla.
At the time when the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian passed through Phrygia, he made a prophecy that holy water would spew out in honor of the Archangel Michael. Indeed, holy water started to flow for the sake of the people of the region.
A wealthy idolater, whose daughter was deaf, was healed thanks to the holy water. He converted to Christianity and built a church in honor of Archangel Michael.
Ninety years later, a young man from Hierapolis, whose name was Archippus, was working in the church as a sexton.
The idolaters of the region were envious and, therefore, decided to make a confluence of the Lykokaperos and Kufos Rivers and direct its combined flow against the church.
Archippus, through his prayer, called the Archangel Michael, who, with a blow of his staff, opened a wide fissure in a rock and commanded the rushing torrents of water to flow into it. The church was saved.
The place where the rivers plunged into the fissure received the name “Chonae”, which means “plunging.”
Source: Church of Cyprus
