Letter 152: Theodore Studite, Letter 152; Greek heading: Τῷ αὐτῷ.

This is now the fourth time I am writing since I was separated from you, my beloved child, making known our circumstances together with the carrying off of the brethren and how I was left alone with brother Nicholas. Therefore I have no need of much speech, but only to give notice, since I have found the letter-carrier, who is both a brother and trustworthy, that we are in good health of body, awaiting day after day the salvation of God. For where else should we look about, or toward whom should we gaze, or toward whom should we breathe for ready help and the consolation of affliction? Hence it has not even been a hardship for us that the brethren were carried off; on the contrary, beyond expectation it has been a thing that brings rest, now that we have been pressed close to God and to him alone, just as a pipe, when it is compressed, sends the water up on high. Therefore we choose even to be separated from brother Nicholas; nevertheless we are content, in the things that have already happened, that it is no longer our own will, but the dispensation [oikonomia: God's ordering of affairs] of God, who in every way has profitably ordered our humble little lodging. I have, then, always one of the weekly servers attending me by turns, and one of the doorkeepers; with him we eat, we chant the psalms, we sleep. Thus we pass the day, as God who watches over us knows, working, reading, keeping quiet, and at the appropriate time conversing about whatever befalls, both among ourselves and with the good men who visit us, and indeed with monks as well; for God has stirred up men not only from among those of this country, but also from beyond the frontier and even further off, to comfort us, in bodily and in spiritual things sufficiently, and to such a degree do some of them share one soul with us that they have even given their right hands [pledged themselves], even unto death, in the contests on behalf of true religion. For even though we are unworthy even to breathe, yet the good Lord in all things anticipates, guards, provides for, and takes thought for those who are exiled for his sake, beyond what anyone hopes. Thus he fed Elijah when he was hungry by means of a raven; thus he fed Daniel by carrying Habakkuk through the air, and whatever other of his servants. Do not, then, O my children, grieve over us in our lowliness, as though we had been abandoned. When I too am separated from this wretched body by the persecutors of Christ (for this also, even though I am unworthy, I am preparing to suffer), then shall I be saved, then shall I be taken up into life, then shall I conquer my persecutor, both the one within and the one without, unto the age [forever]. Therefore, my child, fervently pray for me together with your brethren, in all things always, under God who watches over us, both to think and to converse and to work; the very thing which I also, on your behalf, my longed-for one and one of like heart beyond your other brethren, and on their behalf, do not cease to beseech with tears night and day, that we may all, pleasingly to the Lord, bear in a manly and martyric way this noble contest also, not putting to shame, by what we now stand before, the things accomplished beforehand. For this reason labor yourself also on my behalf among the brethren, drawing some and strengthening them by living voice, and recalling others by ink [by letter], and in a word give your whole self to whatever the need may call for. Concerning any bodily need whatever, do not wear yourself out (we have sufficiency by the providence of God); but do not even send the books, I do not know whether the lexicon and the notebook in which I composed a discourse by means of signs [shorthand], which Hypatius also showed to Callistus in order that he might transcribe it. And again, as the Lord ordains, we make known: for through friends we have been able to have here too something for reading. May God do you good, because you sent to the first [unit/group, designated by the numeral alpha]; but I have written again as well, and when someone is found you will send. I am anxious about the two brethren, how things stand with them; therefore, when you find out, signify it to me, likewise concerning the nineteen. May God, my child, shelter you under his mighty hand. Greet those who keep the word [the rule], especially the fourth, the thirtieth, the tenth.