Letter 265: Theodore Studite, Letter 265; Greek heading: Ἰωσὴφ ἀδελφῷ καὶ ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ.

I have been granted even now to learn of your health and holiness, not only from your honored letter, but also from the living voice of the good Dionysius, who nourished my lowly soul by relating each thing in detail, all that he took in with his own eyes of the things there: the strangeness of the place, the sojourn, the stillness, the mountain, the water; or rather, passing over these, I will speak of that from which it is more recognizable, namely the God whom you serve and whom you worship, and for whose sake you have your wilderness and your patient suffering, having been bereaved in countenance, though not in heart, both of us, the lowly ones, and indeed of the great Church of God under His hand. These things are pitiable, then (for how could they not be?), for one beloved by both, severed as if by the cut of a sword; yet you yourself, most longed-for and most holy one, have great hopes set upon God, and your Church, together with us, has many grounds for boasting in you, in you who for the sake of truth both suffered such things beforehand and now suffer them together with Christ. In these things may the divine grace bring your good contest to completion, unto the recompense of the crown of righteousness on the day of the Lord's just requital. You fear, O father, the enemies of your own household and the unseen enemies more than the visible ones, and not without reason, but as a prudent man, but as one experienced in war, but as one who keeps himself secure. These same enemies I too, wretched as I am, dread and fear, because together with my very breathing there is also the blazing dart [cf. Eph. 6:16], which does not rest from me even when I sleep, through phantom-images, much less when I am awake. But there is one helper: the fear of God; for where this keeps watch, there the passions slumber. I beg, then, of your holiness to come to my aid with your prayers, that I may be preserved without ceasing above the snare of the enemy; for as to our being drawn, unworthy as we are, into your remembrance in each matter, what need is there even to speak of it, except that even before our own salvation we entreat, in the Lord and with a contrite heart, your own good repute and deliverance in all things? The brethren who are with me salute your sacred head with reverence. I most warmly greet the brethren, and especially the good Athanasius, who in deed and word fervently chooses to suffer together with you in the Lord.