Letter 200: Theodore Studite, Letter 200; Greek heading: Δυσὶν ἀδελφαῖς Εἰρήνῃ καὶ Καλῇ.

I am in travail of heart concerning your honorable persons, inasmuch as you live apart [as recluses], but also as women living piously in the keeping of virginity and in the holding fast of orthodoxy, and thirdly as women who are ever doing us good. For this reason, having no other recompense to give, I offer you words. How great is your work, that neither wealth, nor youth, nor noble birth, nor glory, nor the friendship of the world, nor kindred blood, nor the partisanship of men, nor any other of the delightful and beautiful things beneath heaven persuades you to be mired in the bogs of this life, but rather you choose that other life, the one lived in celibacy and in possessing nothing and in the renunciation of all things; for this is what your wish to live the monastic life means. Blessed be God, who has betrothed you through virginity and is preparing for you the heavenly bridal chamber. Yet, besides this, even while you are outside the monastic life [not formally tonsured in a monastery], you perform the works of true nuns: chanting psalms, rising at dawn for the appointed hours, fasting, praying, rearing orphans, showing mercy, wearing humble clothing, and whatever else you do for Him who sees what is hidden, things which are the works of the solitary life. Moreover, may the Lord grant you according to your heart and fulfill all your purpose, you who are the shoots of the good root, the kinswomen of the good brother, the brides of the heavenly bridal chamber. Pray also for me, I beg you.