Letter 115: Theodore Studite, Letter 115; Greek heading: Ναυκρατίῳ τέκνῳ.

Even when no occasion for writing presents itself I love to converse with you, how much more then when one is found! I was therefore brought good news through your letter, my child, of good things; for it is good news to me that my brother and archbishop, who is truly mine, is being sent into exile for Christ's sake, along with the rest of my fathers and brothers. And who would have given me the strength to break forth toward them with a shout of jubilation? Yet I trust that I shall receive it one day; for when it seems good to the emperor to cut off my voice from every quarter, then I shall cry out, taking wing in the spirit and finding the ways out. You, then, my beloved child, be strengthened in the Lord, in no way falling down at the prospect of the removal [into exile]; stand firmly, confess the good confession when you are questioned. If you must be struck, be struck along with Christ; be imprisoned; drink the gall of distressing circumstances; go up upon the cross by your own choosing. For so it shall be reckoned to everyone who chooses to bear the sufferings. Is it not enough for you to become a son of God? Does it not suffice you to become a fellow-heir of Christ? To whom belongs the boasting, to whom the rejoicing and the exulting and the well-being? Is it not to those who suffer and are confined for Christ's sake? Would that I too might suffer other things in like manner to the Master. And who is worthy? Yet there is grace likewise even for those who have gone before. I, wretched as I am, have never rejoiced so greatly, nor have I continued in such well-being (yes, yes, even in the earlier exiles), and I have not forgotten the benefactions of my Lord; but simply even now, because I sent on ahead my blessed father together with my holy Kalogeros [a fellow monk], I reign, I rule, I am glad, I dance. Thus do I await the ill-treatments that come from the world as if they were delicacies. Without fear, undaunted, I dare to say with holy David, 'If an army should be arrayed against me, my heart shall not fear' [Psalm 26(27):3]; death is desirable to me for the sake of life eternal. And indeed, though so disposed and to such a degree, I confess that I am an abomination to all men and one cast off from God on account of my immeasurable sins. So stand these things; for perhaps this is even with a last utterance. Being exiled by God's command, you will by all means take Kallistos and whatever other brother you wish, either at once or later; but leave me Proterios, who is hidden away somewhere here and ministering to me, if indeed God grants it success. Christ be with your spirit.