Letter 122: Theodore Studite, Letter 122; Greek heading: Γρηγορίῳ τέκνῳ.

Now is the time to write to you privately as well, my beloved son and one in soul with the brethren, because you have been set apart and are in prison [confinement] for the name of Christ. What is more excellent, what more blessed, than that you suffer for the sake of Christ, on behalf of his holy icon [image], for the sake of the Theotokos [the God-bearer, the Virgin Mary], on behalf of each of the saints, since the prototypes [the original persons depicted] are not separated from their derivatives [the images derived from them]? Truly, my brother, you have been counted worthy of great gifts: bishops have fallen away, abbots have slipped, and you, ranked among the subordinate monks, have been condemned to the same guarding of the truth as the elect hierarchs and teachers. None of those under obedience has been so glorified, except for your fellow monks of the community. Leap for joy in these things; give glory, confessing thanks to God, who has called you into the fellowship of his sufferings. The pitiable Orestes has fallen away from among you, together with Aphrates. For they were not of us; for had they been, they would surely have remained with you. Those whose former life was faithless toward obedience, how would such men not be stale [empty, gone flat] toward Christ? I was astonished even at the little while they held out. You then, my child, be strengthened in the might of your faith, bearing nobly the things at hand, and being eager for still others for the love of God, day by day awaiting God, who saves you from faintheartedness and from the storm; and the Lord is near to those who endure for him. Pray also for me the sinner, that I may be saved in the Lord. The brother Nicholas greets you. The grace of the Lord be with you, brother, wearer of the crown [i.e. crowned victor, martyr-confessor].