Many centuries ago, amazing events took place here. According to legend, two sisters, Martha and Mary, became widows on the same day and hour. They set out to meet each other: one from Ryazan, the other from Murom. After a long separation, they met and saw in a dream an Angel who commanded them to accept the gifts of the Lord for their pious life. One sister was promised gold, the other silver. In the morning, they indeed found bars of gold and silver. As the Angel commanded, the sisters gave the treasures to the first three monks they met, asking them to make holy relics.

After some time, the monks handed the relics to the Christians: the Holy Cross made of gold and an ark made of silver, explaining that they had arrived from Tsargrad in three hours. After that, they disappeared. The Cross was established in the church of Saint Archangel Michael in the Murom district, on the river Unzha, twenty-five versts from Murom.

The exact date of the appearance of the Unzha Cross, as it was called in the Archaeological Society, is unknown, but this event occurred before the 17th century. This is evidenced by the scribal books of 1627-1630 from the archive of the Vladimir diocese, which states: "The main relic of the church of the Archangel pogost is the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. It is made of pure gold, four-pointed, worn on the chest, placed in a gilded silver ark, decorated with pearls."

It is also known that some time after its miraculous appearance, the Holy Cross was stolen from the Archangel temple. The thieves did not manage to carry it far when the ground opened beneath them, and they fell into a pit. They could not escape as they suddenly went blind. They called for help for a long time, but no one came, and only when they repented of their sin did they regain their sight and escape from the pit, and a spring gushed forth at that place. The Holy Cross reappeared in the temple in its place. A chapel was built at the site of the thieves' enlightenment, where the spring gushed.

A similar chapel was also erected where the Cross first appeared, brought by the three monks. The Unzha Cross remained in the church of the village of Arkhangelsk until the 1920s, after which it was seized by the revolutionary authorities, and its traces were lost. The church was closed and converted into a collective farm warehouse.

In 1992, the church of the village of Arkhangelsk was returned to the believers.