Archippus was a pious ascetic of Asia Minor who, by tradition, served for some sixty years as custodian of the church of the Archangel Michael at Chonae, a site in Phrygia near Hierapolis also identified with ancient Colossae. The synaxarion remembers him chiefly in connection with the celebrated Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae, commemorated on September 6, in which the church he tended was preserved from destruction.
According to the tradition, the church stood beside a spring whose waters were held to bring healing, and the shrine drew many visitors. Through his preaching of Christ and the example of his God-pleasing life, Archippus is said to have brought many pagans to the faith. This drew the hostility of local pagans, who resented the spiritual power attributed to the Christian holy place and the crowds it attracted, and who repeatedly sought to harm Archippus and to destroy the shrine.
The account relates that the pagans diverted two mountain rivers into a single watercourse aimed at the church in order to sweep it away. Archippus prayed fervently to the Archangel Michael, and by tradition the Archangel appeared, struck the rock with his staff, and opened a wide fissure into which the rushing waters plunged, leaving the church unharmed. From this event the place took the name Chonae, understood to mean 'plunging' or 'fissure.' The tradition relates that Archippus continued his ascetic life of prayer at the shrine and reposed in peace.
This Archippus, a fourth-century ascetic and custodian, is distinct from the Apostle Archippus of the Seventy, the first-century companion of the Apostle Paul named in the Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, who is commemorated separately on February 19.
