Letter 136: Theodore Studite, Letter 136; Greek heading: Τῷ αὐτῷ.

In a single turn of circumstance, how much comes to pass! Euprepianus has been carried off [arrested or sent into exile], and at this I grieve, looking toward the outcome. The man of Miletus [the bishop of Miletus] has been carried off before him; over this too I am anxious. As for the seven, where they are and how they are and how they have fared, I am also exceedingly distressed. But God is good and able to set the stumbling-blocks right; since for the Agrinitae too I groan, what a thing the evil one has wrought. Yet the Lord knows how to declare even the causes of evils to be powers that work good. There is grief in these matters, but joy in the confessors [those who suffer for confessing the faith], if indeed they are those whom you have made known; and may the Lord bring their course to fulfillment. Well done also to the man of Medikion [the monk of the Medikion monastery], who answered rightly, whom also greet on my behalf. Concerning the counsel, it has been written that many are the pieces of advice that come from one's neighbor, but to each man nothing is more fitting than his own counsel. This, then, let us hold fast, taking nothing from those who have subscribed [signed, i.e. assented to the iconoclast position], if indeed they should even send anything. And we have learned conclusively that they did subscribe. But as for the fears, my child, let them go; look only to what is dear to God; for he who does not seek this will not possess even the things here below. Greet the brethren; those who are with us send their greetings.