Letter 175: Theodore Studite, Letter 175; Greek heading: Θεοφυλάκτῳ Νικομηδείασ.

For two years now I have been anxious and laboring in my thoughts to write to your sacred head, and only with difficulty have I, the humble one, until now fulfilled my longing. But it is well that I am counted worthy through a letter to greet you: my father, the pillar of the truth, the foundation of orthodoxy, the guardian of piety, the support of the Church, the victory-bearing man, the Christ-bearing high priest, the witness [martyr] of God by confession. For is there not for you a crown of martyrdom, seeing that for Christ's sake you are an exile, a deportee, one who has endured much, and this too in a body that is delicate so far as nature goes, but worn down beforehand, I know, by an ascetic running of the course toward God? In you the choir of the orthodox-minded exults; the region of Nicomedia rejoices and is held in high repute, putting you forward as a free gift to all under heaven, having shaken off the reproaches long noised abroad on account of those who presided there in former times. And if one must speak of something more intimate, Tarasius [the late patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople], he who is among the saints, takes heart's delight, beholding one who was formerly a sheep from his own court and hand, and then a renowned shepherd, now contending and braving danger in the forefront on behalf of orthodoxy, to which he himself contributed his own part synodically, by the grace of God, in the days of a reign named for peace and bestowing peace [the reign of Eirene, whose name means 'peace'], so that the deeds ran together fittingly with the names. But those things, indeed, were of that kind; the things of the present, however, are bitter and full of pain (for how could they not be?), with altars being abolished, churches being plundered, while the heresy throws all into confusion, above and below, and persecutes Christ together with his Mother and his servants. For are not these persecuted, when the holy icons [eikones, sacred images] of them are being plundered? Unless indeed, when the figure [typos] of the life-giving wood is also being abolished, someone should say that the Cross has not been done away with; but if in this case it must not be granted so, how is it not also to be conceded in the case of the icon? For the figure too is an icon, just as, conversely, the argument turns the other way round. But who am I, the wretched and uninitiated one, to give reasons for these things to a divine father and teacher? May you teach us, O most holy one, the more perfect matters, as one initiated by God, and may you instruct us by deed to bear stoutly the present trial, whether it be a chastisement or a testing: the first laid upon us because of our sins, the second laid upon you because of the divine love of Christ; to whom may you not cease to make supplication, that he turn the shadow of impiety into the morning of peaceful orthodoxy most swiftly.