Letter 330: Theodore Studite, Letter 330; Greek heading: Σπαθαρίᾳ τοῦ Φλαβίου.

In a time of trial true friends are tested, just as harbors are, since they appear as a refuge to those storm-tossed by the tempest. For you are in truth the noblest and most pious of women, from of old and from the beginning a harbor and at the same time a shelter for many souls that are homeless and unfed. And there is scarcely anyone among the monks who does not magnify your name and recount your hospitality, even if he himself has not experienced it, but has heard of it from those who have, as I myself also have, not only while I was still among those in that place, but also when farther absent. And who are they that brought the report? Those whom you received and bore with patiently in the present shipwreck of the impious heresy [the second iconoclasm, the rejection of the veneration of icons]; over which I pray to my God that you may sail above, steered by the prudent reasoning of piety [eusebeia], with which you have lived and which you acquired from of old as a companion above all others, and which will present you to God at His revelation from heaven, graciously inheriting eternal life. These things I, the sinner, pray for you, on behalf of our brothers who are with Ignatius, most honored lady.