Letter 189: Theodore Studite, Letter 189; Greek heading: Ἰακώβῳ τέκνῳ.

Well done, Jacob, my revered child! Where was I ever hoping that you would be among the martyrs of Christ, you who are the lowest in rank among your brethren? And indeed the more marvelous thing is that you, even before your fellow contestants, were the first to enter the stadium on Christ's behalf. The lawless persecutor [the iconoclast emperor Leo V] supposed that through you, as one weak in toil and worth nothing, he would hold the victory prizes; but the wretch has been defeated, having met a man who has given up his own soul for the name of God and has been found stronger than the blows dealt him. O child, what a manful soul is yours! Like adamant you bore so many and so great scourgings upon your back and upon your chest and upon your arms likewise. O the savagery of those with the minds of beasts! And O your blessed flesh! On every side you were lacerated; you were carried off like a corpse, having become a burden wrapped in a rag to the godless men. Then, though again threatened with punishment, you were not overcome, but you made yourself ready, having disposed your burial arrangements. Glory and praise to God! You are a foundation and an anointing both for yourself and for your fellow-contestant brethren, of whom one has departed to the Lord, while the others are in the same struggle as you. How great is your reward! You are not my child, but my father, having served God. But see to it that the end is what is sought, and that it is not enough to have begun well, even if this is a provision toward also finishing well. Die, child, for Christ; do not lose your God-given and great struggle. Woe is me over those who have slipped, because they were not of your spirit; for otherwise they would have remained with you in the Lord. They became a thing of malicious joy to the devil, whom they received instead of Christ, and to me the sinner they became grief, and to all the brotherhood a faltering. But may the Lord grant them repentance unto recall, and to you an end worthy of the beginning. Pray, my child, for me the lowly, that I may find Christ together with you.