Letter 391: Theodore Studite, Letter 391; Greek heading: Ἡγουμένῳ.

Since I have learned that you have been arraigned [before the court] and have been beaten for the sake of Christ, O thrice-longed-for one, I rejoice and rejoice together with you; for this is joy and exultation, not according to the joy of the world (for that joy is joyless, seeming to be but not truly being, since, flowing away, it does not stand fast, and, coming to its end, it works death), but the joy that is according to God; for this alone is gladness of soul, and remains ever the same, whose end is life eternal. With good reason, then, do I delight and delight together with you, most honored father. But because, as the saying goes, the snowfall comes in a hundredfold and indeed heavily laid on, behold once more the heightening of gladness: I did not bear the report unmoved, even though I am absent. Yet nevertheless, glory be to the God who has glorified you, in that you were struck down upon your back by the impious. Unquenchable is your glory, holy is your suffering [as a confessor], a support to those who confess together [with you], an eager encouragement to the orthodox, a tearing-asunder of those who incline to heresy [the iconoclasts], a building-up of the Church of God. Holy stones are rolled along upon the earth, as the prophet says [cf. Zechariah 9:16]; what does this mean? It is for the leveling of true religion, for the construction of the Church. You then are one of all these stones, you yourself also, being fitted together by the Holy Spirit and joined to the cornerstone [Christ; cf. Ephesians 2:20-21]. But remember us sinners also, most holy one, in your prayers, that we may not fall away from the building, but may somewhere here be found, even if only as a small pebble, by the grace and loving-kindness of our good God.