Letter 244: Theodore Studite, Letter 244; Greek heading: Ἡγουμένῃ.

The brother reported to me that he had seen your Honor, and that you are strong in spirit, holding fast to the hope that comes through endurance. And indeed I glorified our good God, who has made manifest his own power even in a weak nature [women being conventionally reckoned the weaker sex]; for truly you are blessed among nuns, and indeed among all women, because in these days, in which there have been taken captive not only women of like habit [fellow nuns] and canonesses, but also nearly all the monks and abbots in Byzantium [Constantinople], you, together with four others or even more, have chosen either to suffer for Christ or to share in the heretical communion that separates from Christ. For whoever partakes of it is cut off from Christ's inheritance, like Judas, and is a partner of those who delivered up the Lord to be crucified; for indeed those who diminish and reject his icon [image] are persecutors and crucifiers of Christ, just as they are of the Mother of God [Theotokos] herself and of each of the saints. Take heed, servant of Christ, lest you put to shame him who has called you to the confession of him. You are a holy seed -- I leave aside that which is according to the flesh, since this too is of such a kind -- but I mean a holy seed of Thecla the protomartyr [first-martyred], of Phebronia, of Eugenia, of Matrona, and of those like them. And I have named Matrona because in her own days too, a heresy being then in force, and certain nuns standing firm to abstain from the communion -- as you do now against the accursed heretics -- they, unable to bear the madness, forcibly opened the mouths with their hands and poured in their communion. But what was done by the hand was not held to count against them; so do you also consider that you will be tested in many ways for the sake of Christ. But let us by no means turn aside; for Christ is our helper, even should they test us unto blood. Pray for us, for the Lord's sake, that we sinners too may not fail of Christ.