Letter 246: Theodore Studite, Letter 246; Greek heading: Εὐθυμίῳ τέκνῳ.

Farewell, my beloved child Euthymius. I do not cease, therefore, to remember you in my humble prayers, taking occasion for remembrance from the unfeigned faith and love that is in you: how from the first day you conducted yourself well in your subjection [monastic obedience], and how on the very day of our separation you showed the proof of your love and willing disposition, on the one hand by coming and bringing the necessities to the house of the magistrate who had seized me, and on the other by embarking on a ship and joining your zeal to mine concerning the better hopes for the brotherhood, which was being held under guard by a military hand at the Stoudios [the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople]. And indeed you showed, by the things to which you set yourself, that you alone had taken good counsel, even if recklessly. What was this? To anathematize, together with the whole brotherhood, the wretch Antonius [the iconoclast bishop], who had cast down the holy icons [eikones; sacred images of Christ and the saints]; for which cause you were beaten along with nine men who excelled the others in manliness. You have done the deed, my child, of a martyr, of a soldier of Jesus Christ. Oh, the greatness of your mind! Oh, the steadfastness of your heart! You who were the first to be scourged for Christ and with Christ, and who came out from so many blows, bloodied and with your flesh cut, yet neither uttered a sound of lamentation nor collapsed upon your face, but rather broke forth in that saying which many sing: "Do not be afraid, brothers; these things are nothing" [originally in Greek]. Oh, your holy tongue! This voice put to shame both the tyrant and the all-subduer, who beat you still further on account of this very utterance, and it heartened your brothers to have contended equally with you, and, greatest of all, it gladdened God, who is preparing for you the crown of righteousness. Only, my child, let us contend perfectly in the good contest; and I am confident that he who began this struggle in you will also bring it to completion. Help also in the exile, brother, those who are exiled together with you, by word and by deed. Pray also for me, the humble one, that I may bear all things for the sake of Christ, who is now persecuted through his holy icon. Your brothers who are with me greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.