Letter 158: Theodore Studite, Letter 158; Greek heading: Πέτρῳ Νικαίασ.

Your Holiness commands me to write to you, and to hold this dear. For what purpose I inquire, most holy one, and for what reason? Or is it altogether that you wish to draw me toward love, that gift which God has bestowed upon you above the many, namely to fashion friendships and thereby to be cherished in return? I yield to the fatherly injunction as a most insignificant son. But what word from me, a worthless man, could be capable of winning over one who benefits many, especially one who now in his very deeds suffers for the truth and prefers nothing above it? You have shone as a sun in the heretical night-battle [the iconoclast controversy]; you have been raised up as a pillar in the Church, supporting those who are crumbling. I beseech you, O Peter, who bear the same name as Peter the Great [the apostle Peter], may the present earthquake of impiety find you an unshaken rock of piety, so that we also, easily overthrown as we are, may be made firm in you. Run to the end the double courses of confession [homologia, the open profession of faith], assuredly not without sweat; for in this lie also the crowns. If those who drive chariots upon the earth, completing their course in seven laps, are crowned, what wonder is it if Christ, the true judge of the contest, should prolong the times for those who run toward the goal above, as he has been wont to do from of old? In my ignorant opinion, it is so that he may both prove the unflagging zeal of the runners and restrain the madness of those who drive against them, or else punish it. So much, then, from me to you who exhort me, O blessed one; but for me let the sending of your holy prayers suffice, even should I fail to obtain a letter in return.