Letter 307: Theodore Studite, Letter 307; Greek heading: Τιμοθέῳ τέκνῳ.

What have I heard? Have you too, my child Timothy, fallen in love with God in the company of the martyrs? With zeal you have been zealous for the Lord; bidding farewell to your flight into exile, you have given yourself over to martyrdom. How blessed is your resolve, how filled with God is the fire of your heart, with which long ago too you were known to flash forth amid many right accomplishments! But now you have blazed up more perfectly, shown forth as truly a martyr; and you too may say with joy, "I gave my back to the scourges, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings" [Isaiah 50:6], like Christ for the sake of Christ -- even if it does not seem so to those who persecute Christ. Blessed be the God who gave you strength to be torn apart under a hundred and fifty lashes and not to surrender your salvation, but on the contrary to convict the most impious contriver [of this evil], whose own scourges shall remain everlasting, since he plainly does not repent. In a single moment, good brother, having been made to smart [under the blows], you have won what glory -- glory eternal! You have been joined as a holy stone into the building of the confession of Christ, to the joy of your brothers and fellow contenders, to my boast -- mine, the sinner -- and indeed to the boast of the most God-beloved archbishop, but also to that of all the godly. Who, hearing of your contest, will not sing of it? Who among those who know you will not call you blessed? Christ has crowned you from heaven; the choir of the saints has embraced you. But since it is not the beginning well alone that is to be counted blessed, but the completing of the contest is what is sought, let us stand firm, beloved child, playing the man for what comes next, bearing nobly the hardships of the imprisonment. Christ is the one present with us, who does not allow us to be tested beyond what we are able to endure [cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13], but gives you endurance unto death and supplies you the crowns of the struggle at the end of the contests. O good Timothy, pray also for me, the unworthy one, that I may be saved in the Lord together with you, the holy ones.