Letter 356: Theodore Studite, Letter 356; Greek heading: Λιτοΐῳ τέκνῳ.

After I had finished the Refutation [Theodore's polemical treatise against the iconoclasts], I received the iambic verses again, and they cost me labor; but you did well, child, to make them clear to me. The acrostic running through the middle, then, is not preserved; for it does not begin from the seventh syllable in all the verses, but from one syllable and another, and it cuts off the syllable behind as well, and this is not an acrostic. But see how I have done it, and you will recognize what is clear. Receive, therefore, the quires [the gathered leaves of the manuscript] and read them, and at once transcribe them, handing these back again. But keep them safely, not blabbing them out to the impious; for it is a cause of death. But if any faithful person, on reading them, should find anything defective or out of correspondence-that is, in word or in meaning-or if he himself, going through them, should set it right, or rather should make it known to me; for I have not written anything at random, but much discourse of truth flows, as I think, in them. Remember us, child, ever to be kept safe in the Lord, just as we also pray concerning you.