Letter 290: Theodore Studite, Letter 290; Greek heading: Ἰγνατίῳ τέκνῳ.

As often as I receive a letter from you, finding your true faith and love, which you have toward God and toward my lowliness, I rejoice and at the same time glorify my Lord, beloved child, praying that you remain in these things, through which the soul is purified and a preparation for the contest is at hand. For do not at all suppose that you have escaped the persecutors, seeing that your brothers have been impaled [i.e. caught and held fast]. Make yourself ready, then, from now on, not cowering: God is with you. But I say this not so that you should thrust yourself forward, but rather, while fleeing, lest somehow you be left behind and be found unprepared. So let God be with you, that he may also order [oikonomei: dispose, govern by his dispensation] your life. I beg you, child, glorify God in your body and in your spirit. As for the matter concerning which you reminded me: it is not so much I, but a sinner, a decayed man, who speaks now not recklessly, but indeed with much anguish and fear, that we should neither overreach nor give way, even if just now, having struck us, they have securely shut us up together with the brother Nikolaos. Pray, therefore, my son, that I be kept under guard in the Lord in the prison and be ready for that to which he calls me also to suffer another thing for his sake. The brother sends his greeting; greet the brother Synetos.