Letter 384: Theodore Studite, Letter 384; Greek heading: Ναυκρατίῳ τέκνῳ.

You are always accustomed to make the preface of your letter a long one, heaping upon us, the unworthy, many praises that are not true but are tokens of a friendly disposition. I, for my part, will be brief. What is this brevity? That you may be in health in the Lord, my brother, growing ever more fervent in the love of Christ so as to endure the things suffered for his sake, and that you may not in any way slacken out of slothfulness. And may there still be a kindling in you, so that you may chant together with the holy David: "As the deer longs for the springs of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God" [Psalm 41/42:2]. And this anyone might sing effectually who has a heart already purified, or being purified; for where there is purification, as the Theologian [Gregory of Nazianzus] says, there is illumination. How blessed is that soul by which it is held most desirable to suffer all things for Christ's sake, and to regard every work of the flesh as an abomination. Pray, brother, that I too may catch the scent of this fragrance, I who reek of the passions. This is the first matter. The second concerns Anatolius: how grievous to me is his fall. Nevertheless I have approved your treatment of it; so then, continue to care for him with a brotherly disposition. The third concerns the chapters you have set before me. If an orthodox man, accused of not being in communion [with the heretics], makes the sign of the cross to signify that "I am in communion," having been pressed about nothing further by the heretics, while he secretly holds in his reasoning that "I am in communion as one who comes from the orthodox" -- such a thing is not dispensation [oikonomia, a prudent accommodation], but a betrayal of the truth. The penalty is to be reckoned at half of that for one who has communed with the heresy wholly. As for how great this penalty is, since you have already asked beforehand and been answered, it is superfluous to revolve the same matters twice. If someone, for the satisfaction of the impious and in their very sight, should bring forward a presbyter who is in hiding according to the doctrine of orthodoxy and who does not commemorate the heretic, and should partake of the holy things from him, this man too is to bear the penalty as a betrayer of the truth: a year's abstention from the holy things [the Eucharist]. If someone should swear neither to venerate [proskynesis, reverent prostration before] a divine icon [eikon, holy image] nor again to receive an orthodox monk, and after the oath, knowing the offense, repents and venerates in secret -- grievous is the fall; he has already become a denier of Christ, of the Theotokos [Mother of God], and of the saints. Let him be barred from the holy things for a period of three years, with much loving-kindness. If someone, out of fear, should smear over an icon of Christ or of one of the saints, let him be barred from communion for a year. If some priest commemorates the heretic publicly, but privately, being summoned by some orthodox person in a chapel, is sent to commemorate the heretic -- if indeed in such a chapel the scrupulous man ought to pray: by no means. If someone, under his own penalty, can by reason take on another person for the lightening of the penalty -- in the matter of communion, by no means; but in the case of other matters, it is not to be rejected. Nor could one diminish anything of the determined sentence by almsgivings as if of his own authority; for the one who imposes the penalty knows altogether how to weigh both the person and the time and the external circumstances with a view to remission. For it is not possible to encompass such cases by a fixed rule among the canons that are laid down as permissible [discretionary], even as the Great Basil himself has said; for in giving authority to the bishop for addition and remission, he laid down the canon not as something necessary, that is, inexorable, but as discretionary. So let the one who grants [remission] watch how he grants it; for I too, the lowly one, answer not in a determinative way but under constraint, that is, in an advisory manner, as I have often said, to the questions set before me, whether by you or by another. For the rest, pray concerning my lowliness, helping as you are able those who are striving in the affairs of Stoudios [the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople], since you do so wherever you have strength in the Lord. Brother Nicholas greets you.

Εἴωθας ἀεὶ μακρὸν ποιεῖσθαι τὸ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς προοίμιον, πολλὰ ἡμῖν τοῖς ἀναξίοις συμφέρων τὰ ἐγκώμια, οὐκ ὄντα ἀληθῆ, φιλικῆς δὲ διαθέσεως ἐνδείγματα. ἐγὼ δὲ ἐν βραχέσι· τί τοῦτο; ἵνα ὑγιαίνοις ἐν Κυρίῳ, ἀδελφέ μου, θερμότερος ἀεὶ γινόμενος τῇ ἀγάπῃ Χριστοῦ ὑποφέρειν τὰ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ' οὔ τί που ὑπολήγειν ἐκ ῥαθυμίας. καὶ εἴη σοι ἔτι ἔξαψις, ὡς ἂν ἐπᾴδειν σε μετὰ τοῦ Δαυὶδ τοῦ ἁγίου, ὃν τρόπον ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ἔλαφος ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων, οὕτως ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου πρὸς σὲ ὁ θεός. τοῦτο δὲ ἐνεργῶς ᾄδοιεν ἄν τις κεκαθαρμένην ἔχων τὴν καρδίαν ἢ καθαιρομένην· οὗ γὰρ κάθαρσις, ὥς φησιν ὁ Θεολόγος, ἔλλαμψις. ὡς μακαρία ἡ ψυχὴ αὕτη, ὑφ' ἧς τὸ πάντα παθεῖν διὰ Χριστὸν ἐπιπόθητον λίαν καὶ τὸ βδέλυγμα ἡγεῖσθαι ἅπαν σαρκὸς ἔργον. εὖξαι, ἀδελφέ, ὀσφρανθῆναί με τῆς εὐωδίας ταύτης, τὸν ὀδωδότα τοῖς πάθεσιν. Οὗτος ὁ πρῶτος λόγος. ὁ δεύτερος περὶ τοῦ Ἀνατολίου· ὡς λυπηρόν μοι τὸ πτῶμα αὐτοῦ. πλὴν ἀπεδεξάμην σου τὴν ἰατρείαν· ἔτι οὖν ἐπιμελήθητι αὐτοῦ φιλαδέλφῳ διαθέσει. ὁ τρίτος περὶ ὧν προέτεινας κεφαλαίων. Ἐὰν ὀρθόδοξος διαβληθεὶς ὡς μὴ κοινωνῶν ποιήσῃ σταυρὸν ὅτι "4κοινωνῶ"5, μηδὲν ἕτερον πολυπραγμονηθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν αἱρετικῶν, αὐτοῦ δὲ ἔχοντος κρύβδην τῷ λογισμῷ ὅτιπερ "4ἐξ ὀρθοδόξου κοινωνῶν εἰμι"5, οὐκ οἰκονομία τὸ τοιοῦτον, ἀλλὰ προδοσία τῆς ἀληθείας. τὸ ἐπιτίμιον ἡμισευμένον πρὸς τὸν ὁλοτρόπως τῇ αἱρέσει κοινωνήσαντα. πόσον δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτον ἤδη προερωτηθεὶς καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς περιττόν ἐστι δὶς τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπανακυκλεῖν. Ἐάν τις πρὸς πληροφορίαν τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἐπ' ὄψεσιν αὐτῶν ἐνέγκοι κρυπταζόμενον πρεσβύτερον κατὰ τὸ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας δόγμα καὶ μηδὲ ἀναφέροντα αἱρετικὸν καὶ πρὸς αὐτοῦ μεθέξοι τῶν ἁγιασμάτων, καὶ οὗτος ὡς προδότης ἀληθείας τὸ ἐπιτίμιον ἐχέτω, ἐνιαυτὸν ἀποχὴν τῶν ἁγιασμάτων. Ἐάν τις ὀμόσῃ μὴ προσκυνεῖν θείαν εἰκόνα μήτ' αὖ δέξασθαι ὀρθόδοξον μονάζοντα, μετὰ τὴν ὁρκωμοσίαν εἰδὼς τὸ πταῖσμα μετανοῇ καὶ προσκυνῇ κρυπτῶς, βαρὺ τὸ πτῶμα· ἤδη ἔξαρνος ἐγένετο Χριστοῦ, τῆς τε Θεοτόκου καὶ τῶν ἁγίων· τριετῆ χρόνον εἰργέσθω τῶν ἁγιασμάτων σὺν πολλῇ φιλανθρωπίᾳ. Ἐάν τις χρίσειεν δεδοικὼς εἰκόνα Χριστοῦ ἤ τινος τῶν ἁγίων, ἐνιαυτὸν εἰργέσθω τῆς κοινωνίας. Ἐάν τις ἱερεὺς ἀναφέρῃ τὸν αἱρετικὸν δημοσίᾳ, ἰδίᾳ δὲ προσκαλούμενος ὑπό τινος ὀρθοδόξου ἐν εὐκτηρίῳ στέλλεται ἀναφέρειν τὸν αἱρετικόν, εἰ ἆρα ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ εὐκτηρίῳ τὸν ἀκριβῆ δεῖ προσεύχεσθαι; οὐδαμῶς. Ἐάν τις ἐπὶ τῷ οἰκείῳ ἐπιτιμίῳ δύναται κατὰ λόγον προσλαβέσθαι τινὰ εἰς ἐπικουφισμὸν τοῦ ἐπιτιμίου; ἐπὶ μὲν τῆς κοινωνίας οὐδαμῶς, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων οὐκ ἀπόβλητον. οὔτε δὲ ἐλεημοσύναις δύναιτ' ἂν ὑφαιρεῖν τι τοῦ ὁρισμοῦ ὡς ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ· ὁ γὰρ ἐπιτιμιάζων οἶδε πάντως καὶ πρόσωπον καὶ χρόνον καὶ τὰ ἐκτὸς δοκιμάζειν πρὸς τὸ ὑφεῖναι. ὅρῳ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐνδεχομένως κειμένων κανόνων περιλαβεῖν τὰ τοιαῦτα οὐχ οἷόν τε, καθὼς αὐτὸς ὁ Μέγας Βασίλειος εἴρηκεν· δοὺς γὰρ ἐξουσίαν τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ προσθήκης καὶ ὑφέσεως οὐκ ἐξ ἀναγκαίου, ἤγουν ἀπαραιτήτου, τὸν κανόνα ἔθετο, ἀλλ' ἐνδεχομένως. ὥστε ὁ διδοὺς βλεπέτω πῶς δίδοι· κἀγὼ γὰρ ὁ ταπεινὸς οὐχ ὁριστικῶς, ἀλλ' ἐκβιαστῶς, ἤτοι συμβουλευτικῶς, ὡς πολλάκις εἴρηκα, ἀποκρίνομαι πρὸς τὰς προτεινομένας μοι εἴτε ὑπὸ σοῦ εἴτε παρ' ἄλλου πεύσεις. Τὸ λοιπὸν προσεύχου περὶ τῆς ταπεινώσεώς μου, βοηθῶν τὸ κατὰ δύναμιν τοῖς εἰς τὰ Στουδίου ἐναθλοῦσιν, ἐπεὶ καὶ ὅπουπερ ἂν ἰσχύῃς ἐν Κυρίῳ. ὁ ἀδελφὸς Νικόλαος προσαγορεύει σε.