Letter 313: Theodore Studite, Letter 313; Greek heading: Πέτρῳ Νικαίασ.

Knowing that you love to have me address you - me, who am worth nothing - I now address you, my sacred head, for friendship's sake and not out of any need; and I appear also to have greeted you already by another letter, though whether it was received I do not know. In both letters, then, I have but one message: that you may be sound in body, you who are my father, the firm foundation of the truth set for the support of many, for a seal of the faith, for the praise of Christ, for the glory of the whole Church. For you are a conspicuous eye beyond the rest, known to East and West, possessing, together with your holy life, eloquence in great measure as well - by reason of which you have become beloved to emperors, cherished by rulers, and praised by monks. And as for your own church, what need is there even to speak of it? They call you blessed and they long for you because of the very many righteous achievements that you accomplished - as infants long for their mother's breasts, as nestlings for the one who feeds them, as lambs for him who is truly their shepherd (and how should it not be so?) - keeping your living words ringing in their ears, beholding before their very eyes the temples of God that were raised up again by you. And I have not yet spoken of the abundance of your almsgiving and the rest of your holy works. And do not suppose that I am flattering you out of friendship; for even if I did not perceive these things with my own eyes, nevertheless I have heard them from those who know. But if at present the man who is truly one-eyed [a derisive epithet for the iconoclast, here likely the emperor Leo V the Armenian or an iconoclast bishop], blind both in his outward and in his inward eyes, holds possession of these things, do not grieve, O blessed one, nor indeed be astonished: the apostles too were in the upper room, and the slayers of God [the Jews who, in Theodore's view, brought about Christ's death] held the far-famed temple in their grasp. Such also are the doings of the icon-fighters [iconoclasts, opponents of the veneration of icons] and the Jewish-minded now; whom may the Lord convert, and may He preserve you, as you pray for me, your child.