Letter 216: Theodore Studite, Letter 216; Greek heading: Καλλίστῳ τέκνῳ.

I have not forgotten you, my beloved child Kallistos, but I both remember you and hold you in my heart in the love of Christ. Accepting you most warmly in your attachment and service to the steward [oikonomos: the monastery's administrative officer] (and I am not lying in what I say), I myself seem to be served and given rest. May my Lord, then, show you to be useful in all things, you who first served well our blessed father, then also my ever-remembered Arsenios, and after these now the steward, in both of them tending and serving me, the lowly one, as has been said; except that you also served through the ministry of the cellar [kellarion: the monastery storeroom]. I rejoice that in everything you are proven, capable, polished, faithful, well-disposed, patient, a lover of your father, quick-witted, skilled in management, steadfast, a guardian of the rule, unswerving in the faith and confession of Christ. In these things, then, abide; in these be confirmed; in these rejoice, because your reward is great with God. I myself would have wished to have you now for myself, but henceforth (thanks be to God) you give me rest all the more in your absence, giving rest to my eye, to my soul, to the steward, not only in matters at home, but also in the comings and goings to the brethren. May the grace from God be ever abounding to you. Pray concerning my lowliness. Your brethren greet you.