ST MICHAEL SAVED HIS MIRACULOUS SPRING FROM BEING FLOODED WITH DIRTY RIVER WATER

I was so uplifted learn that John the Evangelist, the Apostle Jesus loved, was a founding father in spreading devotion to St Michael. 

Most likely after Our Lady had gone to Heaven, St John the Beloved Apostle was crossing modern-day Turkey, and reached a place that sounds like fridge, Phrygia. St John stopped at the ancient city, Chonae. Once he was settled, the Holy Spirit instructed St John to found a cult to Holy Michael the Archangel, so that the place would become an epicenter of reverence and love for the leader of all angels. St John first preached to the natives as to the greatness of St Michael. A spring of water shot up from the ground where St John walked when he introduced the local people to Michael and where he exhorted them to put their faith in him. This spring was not man-made and was hailed as a wonder. Soon the sick came to ask the intercession of St Michael. When they came, they were instructed as to how to make the sign of the cross in honor of the Blessed Trinity and when they did so and prayed to St Michael they were healed instantly. Many of the pilgrims were pagans. They converted to the Faith, after they stood and sipped from the spring where the people of Chonae had first met St John the Beloved. 

Not far from Chonae, St Michael appeared to the father of a little girl who had been born mute. He told him to take his daughter to the supernatural spring and have her drink from it. The father took his little girl and while she swallowed, he asked for her cure by praying, "In the name of St Michael, prince of the heavenly host..." Suddenly, the girl spoke, and her first words were, "Thank you, St Michael!"

The father and daughter were catechized and then baptized. Such was the zeal of this convert that the father spearheaded the foundation of a gorgeous church dedicated to St Michael right by the spring as a way of thanking the Archangel. This spring and the church was in the jurisdiction of a very good and holy Archbishop and under his inspired leadership, the spring became a renowned place of pilgrimage and the site of myriad miracles. Like a good boss, the Archbishop kept order, ensured that many conversions were facilitated and the same land that St John the Beloved walked was preserved immaculately. 

But the local pagans were envious and became so enraged at both the miraculous healings and the sanctity of the Archbishop that they plotted absolute destruction. 

They sought to put the holy Archbishop to death. They captured him, dragged him by his hair along the ground while they battered him with clubs. But low and behold their fingers - that pulled the Archbishop's hair - instantly shriveled and their hands looked like they had been incinerated in a fire. There was an attempt to dismantle and wreck the spring but fire spouted from it instead of water which confounded the pagans and they fled. In view of bursts of flames coming from the spring - which was a natural impossibility - they tried to bring water from a river in order to dilute the spring's blessed water and dirty it. The holy Archbishop was informed of this plan and he knelt before St Michael's altar and asked that efforts to pollute the spring come to nought. 

When he left the church, the Archbishop found a column of fire, a cylinder of blazing light that went from earth to heaven. He heard the voice of St Michael, telling him to have courage. When the pagans had succeeded in diverting water from the river which they hoped would drown the spring, St Michael appeared, made the sign of the cross and his presence halted the river water from touching his spring. The wall of river water obeyed him and did not even moisten his spring. He was simultaneously protecting the land where St John, the Apostle Jesus loved had tread when he followed the direction of the Holy Spirit in establishing devotion to the him. 

The gold icon above is a celebration of Michael's feat in blocking the river waters from flushing his spring and is entitled Miracle at Chonae and is found at St Catherine's Monastery in Mount Sinai. 

I wish you and yours a most happy feast of the Archangels, the leader of these stalwart spirits is Michael indeed he is leader of all angels. 

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This post was informed by The Grandeurs of St Michael the Archangel by Marcel Bouzon which is available here. If you are fighting an epic battle against the demonic (as most of us are) this book will inform you as to how Michael can defend you, and how you may give proper honor to St Michael who battles on the behalf of you and your family. This book also makes a great gift for someone called Michael, that they be edified as to the leader of the angels after whom they are named.