Letter 231: Theodore Studite, Letter 231; Greek heading: Ἀθανασίῳ ἡγουμένῳ.

I have already for a long time been talking on and on [to myself] and longing to learn the news of Your Holiness, and so when your God-beloved letter arrived, how can one even tell how greatly it gladdened and delighted me? For I was released from my anxiety and glorified our good God, on learning of your soundness both in your body's condition and in the disposition of your honorable soul. For what a letter it was: brimful of brotherly love, filled to the full with godly courage, fruitful with burning zeal, truly replete with the gifts of the Spirit—and this from one who is in prison, bound with iron, O your noble confession, O your steadfast heart! You were scourged together with Christ, not once but even twice, and when beaten you rejoiced, and you chose exile with great joy, and the torments endured for God's sake became to you as delights. Therefore I call you my father and the father of many, an athlete of piety, a pillar and bulwark of the truth, and by common confession a confessor of Christ—one who has not merely run a single lap in the racecourse of martyrdom and then grown weak and turned back, like those around Joseph who slipped [evidently iconoclasts who lapsed under pressure] (of whom that saying might fittingly be said: 'No one who has put his hand to the plow and turned back is fit for the kingdom of heaven'; for these the lawlessness was indeed great, but the shame was greater, in the midst of the world, together with the curse of the millstone of the scandal [cf. Matthew 18:6, the millstone hung about the neck of one who causes others to stumble]), but one who has passed and will pass many fine [laps], well do I know it, by the good pleasure of God, at the end of the crowns. Hail, most excellent Athanasius, the great and venerable name among all, fittingly bestowed upon you and according to the principle of names that fit their bearer [Athanasios means 'immortal'; the deathless name suits the confessor]; hail, well-stemmed shoot of the Lord, in whom is His resting place. 'Wherein,' it says, 'shall a young man set his way aright? In keeping your words' [Psalm 118(119):9]. May you fare well, most dear to me and child-father [father of spiritual children], the one for affection's sake, the other for your worthiness, you who are my fellow worker and fellow contestant—if indeed it is permitted that I too, the useless one, be reckoned into the count; for I possess no good thing, nor have I contributed anything to the Church of God; and if there is anything, the grace belongs to Him, with you also lending your help by your like manner of life through our mutual connection, so that, as it is written, thanks may be given on your behalf by many persons for the gift bestowed on us [cf. 2 Corinthians 1:11]. This is my small address, the address of an insignificant man. But you, O sacred head, building upon your good foundation, perfect yourself as a house of God, preparing yourself even unto blood in the confession of Christ, always praying for these same things on my behalf as well—that I may not, because of my sins, be cut off from your sacred triad [the three confessors with Athanasius], nor again from the other fathers equal to you in renown; for there are still those who have not bowed the knee to Baal [cf. 1 Kings 19:18, Romans 11:4].