Letter 221: Theodore Studite, Letter 221; Greek heading: Θεόδωρος πάσαις ταῖς ἀδελφότησιν ἤτοι συνοδίαις ταῖς πανταχοῦ διὰ Χριστὸν διεσπαρμέναις σὺν τοῖς ἐν φυλακαῖς τε καὶ ἐξορίαις κρατουμένοις ἐν Κυρίῳ χαίρειν.

Grace to you and peace, to speak in the manner of the apostle, from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, our hope; for whom and on account of whom there is the persecution, the affliction and the distress, the desolation and the exile, the prisons and the punishments, and all the other encounters and misfortunes that befall us each day unto wretchedness. For this reason, my beloved brothers, having devised some consolation for the absence of our humble person, we send you this letter, making it known that without ceasing we make remembrance of you in our humble prayers, recalling and reflecting upon each one of you, and with tears and groanings lifting up our hands to God, that, just as we have entered upon the contests for the truth and have gone out in one spirit and one soul, as from a nest, from our holy ascetic dwellings, so we may remain to the end by the power of the Lord, holding the same faith, the same love, of one soul, minding the one thing and holding fast the one doctrine of the truth, which has been proclaimed and inscribed both by sight and by hearing in all the creation that is under heaven: namely, to venerate [proskynesis: the worshipful reverence offered to God] the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the much-hymned and blessed Trinity according to the principle of theology; and to confess the One of the Trinity, the Son and Word of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ, that he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men, in the form that is according to us, to be depicted in an image [eikon: the painted icon] in the character of a body, inasmuch as the same one was named perfect God and at once man, having entered so far within circumscription [perigraphe: the property of being delimited or depictable] according to us, whose nature also he assumed, as that nature stands removed from the uncircumscribable [aperigrapton] character of the divine nature. For indeed, as the sacred sayings declare, he does not lay hold of angels (even if they too may be depicted in an image, as has been seen by those who beheld them through the Spirit), but he lays hold of the seed of Abraham, whence he was obliged in all things to be made like to the brethren. Let the fighters against Christ [christomachoi] therefore say how it is possible that the Abrahamic seed not be depicted in an image, and how he could have that which is in all things like to us, whose brother he has been called, if he is not shown to have received, according to us his brethren, the property of circumscription. Then he is neither a brother nor indeed like to us, and on this account not even a man. So it follows from their not saying that Christ is depicted in an image according to us; and thus they cast away the saving dispensation [oikonomia: the divine economy of salvation, the Incarnation], on a level with the Manichaeans, the Valentinians, and the Marcionists. May we flee their communion, brothers, as we would the venom of a serpent, which blackens not the body, as the Theologian [Gregory the Theologian] somewhere says, but the depths of the soul; and minding the same things as the apostolic and universal Church under heaven (for this Church of Byzantium is a heretical fragment, as it has been accustomed in many ways to cut itself off from the rest), we depict in an image our Lord Jesus Christ in his bodily character, by the succession brought down from the very beginning, from his manifestation itself, from apostolic practice, transcribing image from image just as also of the life-giving Cross; and we do not stamp the one, which is the weapon of Christ against the devil, while not depicting in an image the other, who is the armed warrior and the destroyer of Satan. For how could a victorious and true weapon be inscribed, if it does not have the warrior shown beneath the eye? Then also we venerate his holy icon, as venerating in it the depicted Christ; for he came forth depicted from the womb of his holy mother the Mother of God [Theotokos]; otherwise he is some miscarriage and not a man fully formed, O fighters against God [theomachoi]. But if the infant comes forth depicted, as is indeed the case, concerning whom the prophet says, 'Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord,' then it is by every necessity natural that he be depicted in an image as well. You deaf, hear; and you blind, look: in one thing only is there novelty in our doctrine concerning Christ, namely, that he was conceived in the womb of a virgin without seed and was born without corruption, inasmuch as, according to the Scripture, neither did he commit sin, nor was guile found in his mouth; but in all other things he was according to us: he ate, he drank, he breathed, he grew, he walked, he sweated, he labored, he was crucified, he died (even though as God), on the third day he was raised, having even after the resurrection our depicted form, deified and made incorruptible in himself, in which he was also beheld by the apostles, and ate and drank with them when he was risen, and was touched by Thomas, saying to all, who supposed him to be a spirit, 'Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you behold me to have.' Thus also he was taken up in glory; and in like manner he will come in the same form of our appearance, whom all flesh shall see from heaven with the angels of his power in a fire of flame, rendering vengeance to those who do not know God and to those who have not obeyed his gospel, as it is written; with whom the Jews who crucified him shall mourn, and the icon-fighters [eikonomachoi: those who war against the icons] who do not endure to depict him in an image. These, brothers, are the evangelical proclamations; these are the apostolic teachings. But those who think the contrary attempt to turn the people of God to another gospel (which is not another), bringing forward spurious writings that speak out of the belly and not from the mouth of the Lord; for it has always been the custom that tares be sown alongside the wheat, and falsehood be set beside the truth; since how could truth even appear if it had no contradiction? But even if we, says the apostle, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed [anathema]; as we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you contrary to what you received, let him be accursed. But concerning the Mother of God, or any of the saints, that they are depicted in images, it is superfluous for me to write to you; for it would be foolish for any man whatever to say that they are not represented in character. But those who refuse that Christ be circumscribed, who is the head of the body of the Church, have thought to include along with him also that the members of Christ not be depicted in images, since we are all the body of Christ and members in part. For it is a refutation against them that the mother of God should be depicted in an image, but not he who was born from her and was seen at her breast and submitted to all that belongs to his bodily presence; or again, that the eyewitnesses and ministers should be portrayed on monuments, but he who was ministered to and dwelt among them not be represented in character. And they are shown to be worse than the Jews, since they do not even admit an image of Moses or of any other of the prophets, whereas those men of the time before grace admit such images as men under the law and not as Christians; but these people are so senseless that they fight against both themselves and the Jews, so that the Jews are not guardians of the law, nor are these men Christians, who do not depict in form Christ, whom they admit to have become man. There is a saying of Peter the apostle in the account of the martyrdom of Saint Pancratius: 'Child Joseph, bring out the icon of our Lord Jesus Christ and impress it upon the little tower, that the peoples may see what form the Son of God assumed, so that, seeing it, they may believe the more, beholding the type of the form, and may take a reminder of the things proclaimed to them by us.' There is a saying of Paul: 'O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose very eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed crucified among you?' There is a saying of Basil the Great: 'Let Christ, the umpire of the wrestling-contests, also be inscribed upon the panel'; and again: 'The honor of the image passes over to the prototype.' There is a saying of Athanasius, the man of many struggles: 'We the faithful do not venerate the icons as gods (far from it), as the Greeks do, but only manifesting the relation and the longing of our love toward the character of the person of the icon.' There is a saying of Chrysostom: 'I too have loved the wax-poured painting, filled as it is with piety; for I saw an angel in an icon driving back the hordes of the barbarians, I saw the tribes of the barbarians trodden underfoot, and David speaking truly: Lord, in your city you will bring their image to nothing.' Which very thing the icon-fighters now do to Christ and to the Mother of God and to the saints (oh, the fearful thing to hear!), bringing their holy icons to nothing. And, that I may pass over the sayings of the others (for they are many), having added one I will turn my discourse to another matter. There is a saying of the holy fathers of the Sixth Council [the Quinisext Council in Trullo, 692]: 'In some paintings of the venerable icons there is engraved a lamb pointed at by the finger of the Forerunner [John the Baptist], which was taken as a type of grace, prefiguring to us through the law the true Lamb, Christ our God. Embracing therefore the ancient types and the shadows handed down to the Church as symbols and foreshadowings of the truth, we honor the grace and the truth above them, having received it as the fulfillment of the law. In order, therefore, that what is perfect may be set forth even in the colorist's art before the eyes of all, we decree that the character, according to his humanity, of Christ our God, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, be set up in the icons from now on in place of the ancient lamb; comprehending through him the height of the humbling of God the Word, and being led by the hand to the remembrance of his life in the flesh, of his passion and of his saving death, and of the redemption thereby brought about for the world.' Having therefore these testimonies, beloved, together with the indisputable demonstration drawn from within and from the truth itself, as has been shown above, I beseech you, be watchful, stand fast in the faith, play the man, be strong, in nothing terrified by the adversaries, nor again by the false brethren who have been tripped up and deceived in mind (which is to them an indication of perdition, but to us of salvation, and this from God, as it is written, that to us it has been granted by God on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake), having the same contest such as you saw in me the sinner and now hear of, thinking together, being of one soul together, striving together for the faith of the gospel, working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, that, hearing the things concerning you, I the sinner may rejoice. Watch for Satan, watch for boldness of speech, see that no one in any matter provoke God to bitterness. For the great dragon is of many devices and much experienced; where through faith he does not find means to destroy, from the other side he runs to work the same evil through transgression, by the law of sin that wars against the law of our mind. He roars, he watches like a lion to snatch, he tickles, he kindles fire, he reaches to set ablaze the house of the soul. We have from God the defensive weapons that overthrow him: water of the head, a fountain of tears, supplications, prayers. Above all, let the divine fear be iron and nail down our flesh; nowhere let envy lodge, nor again strife, nor vainglory, nor any of the works of darkness. As long as the passions are merely skirmishing at a distance, let them be beaten off, lest, having taken up residence and poisoned the soul, they become hard to be rid of. He who contends exercises self-control in all things. So run, that you may attain. Let the last yield to the first; for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. Love divinely, you who lead, those who follow, and require obedience and submission not from authority, but from virtue and goodness. Do not separate from one another, exchanging many superiors and being of use nowhere. Mark the evangelist Paul did not choose to take along with him, as it is written, because he had not gone with them but had turned back home the former time. How much more are we obliged to be content? Let each one, brothers, remain in that wherein he was called. Let us cleanse ourselves, beloved, from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Hold fast the traditions which you were taught, instruct one another, take always a reminder of death. Pray therefore, I beseech you, for all, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, going about from place to place, in want, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts and mountains, or perhaps even creeping into holes of the earth. Glory that it is for Christ's sake, that the world is not worthy of you. Endure, my little children, little children, endure a little while, and the Lord will come, the giver of crowns, the bestower of reward, of whom we have been promised to become joint heirs (if indeed we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together), praying in all things, even for me the wretched one, that my heart may be strengthened in the Lord to endure unto death the things that are brought upon us, that Christ may not thrust me away on account of my unworthiness, that I may be delivered from the evil one always in every way. Now I live, beloved, if you stand fast in the Lord. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting, if not you, both in this present age and in that which is to come? Yes, for you are both the consolation of love and my encouragement. And may the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entire and blameless. Faithful is our God, who will also bring it to pass, brothers, that you greet one another with a holy kiss. My greeting, of the humble Theodore, to all my members, from the lips of my heart. The brothers who are with me greet you. Grace be with your spirit. Amen.