Letter 112: Theodore Studite, Letter 112; Greek heading: Εὐθυμίῳ Σάρδησ.

Twice already we are now writing to Your Beatitude. But alas for my sin! For our discourse is in tears, because a pair of the previous letter-bearers, having set out toward your place of exile, were lost beneath the waves [drowned at sea]—a thing that crushed my lowly soul beyond measure. Nevertheless, since they were sons of obedience and apostles of such a ministry, and thirdly because there is but one death most pitiable, the death of sin, even should it overtake a man upon his bed, I have borne it with thanksgiving, setting aside the grief. Therefore in the first letter as well I kindled toward Your love-of-God [theophilia, devotion to God] the felicitation that is owed; for indeed you are worthy to be called blessed, having contended above all others and having spoken with boldness among the hierarchs—and that too at a time when you did not even have the season for confidence, because of the vacancy of the throne. Yet, holding your throne by the power of truth, you surpassed nearly all those beneath the thrones, having carried off the crown of confession. The same things I now address to your sacred head, crowning you not with a gold-encrusted diadem (since the victory is in no way after the flesh), but with God-woven words; for the conquest is a heavenly one. Rejoice, therefore, and be of good cheer, O admirable one, still bearing and completing the double course [diaulos, the racecourse run out and back] of your banishment, so that at the finish of your departure from this life you may run back, crowned, into the heavens; and before that, may it be granted me to behold you, made radiant, upon your presidency [the episcopal see] in a time of peace. For as to how things now stand—how the Church among us has been thrown into turmoil and set ablaze—it is much to tell, because of the manifold forms of the impiety. Divine altars are being abolished as the venerable icons [eikones, sacred images] are taken away; holy churches have lost their seemliness; nearly every soul has buckled, having given written pledges to the impious. Few are those who hold out, and these are tested by their afflictions as though in fire. The bishop of Smyrna has slipped among the bishops, and the bishop of Cherson; among the abbots, the abbot of Chrysopolis, the abbot of Dius, the abbot of Chora, and very nearly all those in the city. Those of Bithynia stand firm, by the grace of Christ. Pray, father, that they may be strengthened, together with us lowly ones, unto the end. No one of the lay order stands fast, except the Peximenites, who, having been flogged, has been exiled; among the clergy, the admirable Gregory, surnamed Kentroukoukouros; and among the abbesses, as many as six, who are held under guard in monasteries. Let me come to the necessity of your command. Why, O father, have you enjoined upon me things beyond my measure, both in respect of rank and in respect of the present constraint—even, in a secret manner, the charge that I should send greetings to those who are genuine [the faithful]? There is fear upon all, and most of all upon me, the sinner, lest anything should somehow become evident to the one in power. For indeed I was transferred into further exile in the Anatolic regions [the Anatolic theme], and there is no small wrath against me, the wretched one, on the part of the Caesar, kindled the more by reports—he commanding me to keep silent and not to teach, while I, the miserable one, refused and answered back the more stubbornly. For these reasons there were blows, though I escaped them through the modesty and piety of the one who struck; there were seizures of those who serve me, of the very little books they had. How then, amid these things, I could undertake any of the things enjoined, I am at a loss; pardon my lowliness, even if the matter is a blessed one. And I do not yet say that, equally with the places there, here too there is the affliction of famine. Nevertheless, taking courage in one person, I have written; if the letter accomplishes anything, the sending of it will make it plain. For the rest, pray on behalf of your child, that he may walk behind your holiness.