Letter 212: Theodore Studite, Letter 212; Greek heading: Εὐσεβίῳ τέκνῳ.

I received your letter, child, and on reading it I understood that you fear God through the love and confidence which you have, for his sake, toward my lowliness; for love toward one's superior [the abbot, kathegoumenos] and a longed-for vision of him are a token of a God-pleasing submission. Thanks be to God, then, that the sparks of your faith have remained unquenched, and indeed will remain so forever. Your voluntary coming to this place is also most welcome. Yet you did well in restraining yourself, for the arrival of any chance person [an ordinary visitor] is a temptation. But I urge you, my child, to guard yourself from every evil. Let your cell be in a place free of scandal (for one must flee the occasions of falls), together by all means with one or two of your brothers; for it is written, woe to the one who is alone, since if he falls there is no one to raise him up. The flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these things, he says, are opposed to one another. Let us not give the victorious inclination to the flesh (for it will lead us down to the bottom of Hades), but to the spirit; for in this we shall live unto the ages, rejoicing. Therefore let us eat and drink and sleep by measure and weight; to the victor belongs the crown. So do not be put to shame, my child, but in everything present yourself blameless, as a servant of God. Be zealous with zeal for the Lord in orthodoxy, because the denial of him is now committed by the present persecutors in [their rejection of] his icon [image; eikon]; flee from all communion with them as from the venom of a serpent. May Christ be your helper in all things. I have also accepted your present gifts of blessing, as I did the earlier ones, and may the God of my father bless you in return. Greet the brother Eleutherius, and tell him that you greatly gave me rest by the sandals which you made for your brothers, in obedience to the steward [oikonomos, the monastery's administrator]. But may the Lord give you rest in return. Let him too know the things I have admonished you, my child; for I rejoice, above all, if you are together with one another. Pray for my lowliness; the grace of the Lord be with you. Your brothers who are here with me greet you.