Letter 303: Theodore Studite, Letter 303; Greek heading: Προτερίῳ τέκνῳ.

I was thrown into alarm, my beloved child, at your arrival; but when I had read your letter (I do not know whether it was in your own hand, for you learned to write quickly, and thanks be to the Lord), I was freed from that alarm, having given thanks to God, and I was set at rest over the good counsels you took together, the one to set out for the city, the other having arrived before Pascha [Easter] and indeed with the provisions for the feast. In return for which, may the Lord nourish you with spiritual graces, you who labor so on behalf of our lowliness. We are well, then, in body, and, if you pray, in spirit also, so that, letting go of your anxiety over us, you may be more fervent in prayer with hope and joy; for by the grace of God and by the prayers of my blessed father [Plato, Theodore's spiritual father], together with your supplication as well, we are accomplishing the contest set before us thankfully and with long-suffering and with endurance, having become other men out of our former selves beyond hope, and so much so as we should never have become, from the time we knew good and evil. It is the gift of God, not from our own works, only provided that for the future too you do not grow weary of beseeching God on our behalf, just as we also do on yours. As for the problem, since the father [the abbot John Klimakos, author of the Ladder] left it unresolved, how can we, the unlearned, settle it? Nevertheless, the present heresy [iconoclasm] is assuredly a denial of Christ; and this is plain both from other grounds, and plain too from what is said in the patristic [collection of the Fathers' sayings] to one assailed by fornication: it is more profitable for you not to abstain from any prostitute than not to venerate [proskynesis] the icon [eikon, image] of Christ. So that it is no ordinary heresy, but a denial of Christ; and as for those who put forward Klimakos's unresolved question concerning whether to fall into fornication or to be caught in heresy, as though the one were the more choiceworthy than the other, let the verdict in the patristic make them afraid, and let them fall neither into fornication nor into the heresy that fights against Christ; for in either case it is adultery. And I had still more to say, but the letter does not hold it. Return in good health, greeting the brethren, and come again when the Lord shall be well pleased that you reach the brethren.

Ἐθροήθην, τέκνον μου ἠγαπημένον, ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ σου· ἀλλ' ἐπὰν ἀνέγνων τὴν ἐπιστολήν σου (οὐκ οἶδα, εἰ ἰδιόχειρόν σου· ταχὺ γὰρ ἐξέμαθες, καὶ χάρις Κυρίῳ), τῆς θροήσεως ἀπηλλάγην εὐχαριστήσας τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἀνεπαυσάμην ἐφ' οἷς καλῶς ἐβουλεύσασθε, ὁ μὲν ἀπᾶραι ἐν ἄστει, ὁ δὲ πρὸ τοῦ Πάσχα παραγεγονὼς καί γε μετὰ τῶν ἐφοδίων τῆς ἑορτῆς. ἀνθ' ὧν θρέψειέν σε ὁ Κύριος τοῖς πνευματικοῖς χαρίσμασιν, οὕτως περιπονούμενον εἰς τὴν ταπείνωσιν ἡμῶν. Ὑγιαίνομεν οὖν σωματικῶς, εἰ δὲ προσεύχεσθε, καὶ πνευματικῶς, ὥστε τῆς ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἀγωνίας σου ἀφέμενος μετ' ἐλπίδος καὶ χαρᾶς θερμότερος ἔσο τῇ προσευχῇ· θεοῦ γὰρ χάριτι καὶ εὐχαῖς τοῦ μακαρίου μου πατρὸς σὺν ἱκεσίᾳ καὶ ὑμῶν διανύομεν εὐχαρίστως καὶ μακροθύμως καὶ ὑπομονητικῶς τὸν προκείμενον ἡμῖν ἀγῶνα, ἕτεροι ἐξ ἑτέρων γεγονότες παρ' ἐλπίδα, καὶ τοσοῦτον ὡς οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐγενόμεθα, ἐξ ὅτε γινώσκομεν καλόν τε καὶ κακόν. θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον, οὐκ ἐξ οἰκείων ἔργων, μόνον ἐάνπερ καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἑξῆς μὴ ἐκκακήσητε παρακαλεῖν τὸν θεὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ὥσπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν. Τὸ πρόβλημα, ἐπεὶ ἄπορον εἴασεν ὁ πατήρ, πῶς δυνάμεθα ἡμεῖς διαλῦσαι οἱ ἀμαθεῖς; πλὴν ἡ παροῦσα αἵρεσις ἄρνησις Χριστοῦ ἐστιν ἀσφαλῶς· καὶ δῆλον μὲν καὶ ἐξ ἄλλων, δῆλον δὲ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ λέγειν ἐν τῷ πατερικῷ πρὸς τὸν πολεμούμενον ὑπὸ τῆς πορνείας· συμφέρει σοι μηδεμιᾶς ἑταιρίδος ἀποσχέσθαι ἢ τὴν εἰκόνα Χριστοῦ μὴ προσκυνεῖν. ὥστε οὐχ ἡ τυχοῦσα αἵρεσις, ἀλλὰ ἀρνησίχριστος· καὶ τοὺς προβαλλομένους τὸ τοῦ Κλίμακος ἄπορον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς πορνείαν ἢ αἱρέσει ἁλῶναι, ὡς θατέρου αἱρετωτέρου ὄντος μᾶλλον, φοβείτω ἡ ἐν τῷ πατερικῷ ἀπόφασις καὶ μήτε εἰς πορνείαν μήτε ἐν τῇ χριστομάχῳ αἱρέσει ἐμπαρείτωσαν· καθ' ἑκάτερον γὰρ μοιχεία. καὶ ἔτι πλείονα εἶχον λέγειν, ἀλλ' οὐ χωρεῖ τὸ γράμμα. Ὑγιαίνων ὑπόστρεφε προσαγορεύων τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενος, ὅτε εὐδοκήσει Κύριος φθάσαι τοὺς ἀδελφούς.