Letter 234: Theodore Studite, Letter 234; Greek heading: Σισόῃ ἐπισκόπῳ.

I have praised our good God, on coming upon the letter of Your Holiness, my beloved child and brother and father, because both humility is present in you and a firm faith and a fervent eagerness and a stoutness of endurance and a wisdom of speech, which the son of perdition [the persecutor; cf. John 17:12] and the dormouse of irrationality was not able to withstand; and thanks be to God, who has given you a mouth that strikes true and a tongue that cuts through heretical chatter. Now therefore, my genuine son and much-longed-for father, there are yet prizes of contests still to be won, since I have learned that you have been transferred to the place of punishment. Stand fast, I beseech you; play the man, I implore; prove yourself the best, I entreat; show forth works of the power of God in this weak flesh of yours; before your feet I supplicate you. May he who chastises the others give up, defeated by your struggles. Among bishops, my light, shine forth; among monastics, my life, be exalted to the summit; among confessors [homologetai, those who confess the faith under persecution], my very heart and crown together, be crowned. Let heaven and earth give praise over you; let priests and hierarchs together with monks give glory, each of them claiming you for his own as an adornment by reason of his own dignity. So be it: we are afflicted, we hunger, we faint with thirst, we are in want, we are utterly at a loss; I would add, we are scourged; the foot upon the wooden stocks, the neck in bonds, the sword, and at the last, fire. What is this against the kingdom of the heavens? What against the good things contained in the promises? And bear in mind that it is not possible for one who suffers for Christ's sake not to have Christ as his helper, who permits him to be tried only so far as we are also able to bear it; for is there any other who puts to death and brings to life? Let us not then, brother, grow faint, hearing him who says: I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God [Romans 8:38-39]. Thus I hope concerning you; so do you also yourself pray concerning me, the sinner, leaving aside the praises which you unworthily attach to me; for I am the least of all human beings.