Letter 408: Theodore Studite, Letter 408; Greek heading: Θεόδωρος ἁμαρτωλὸς μοναχὸς τοῖς πνευματικοῖς μου πατράσι καὶ ἀδελφοῖς, ὁμολογήσασι καὶ ἐναθλοῦσιν ἐν εἱρκταῖς, ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆσ.

Having heard, O thrice-longed-for ones, of the testimony of your noble confession on behalf of Christ, I sang its praise; I glorified God, who called you out of the foreign land into the Queen of Cities [Constantinople], to pour out your blood like rational lambs for a sweet-smelling savor to him, a light to those in the darkness of the heretical night-battle. Then I, the lowly one, desired with longing to see you, the contestants [athletai, athletes of the faith], and to embrace you one by one, drawn on by a burning yearning. But since this is bodily impossible, snatched up through this letter and standing in your midst, I both salute your holy footsteps and kiss with a holy kiss your sacred faces. O noble soldiers of Christ, as men summoned from a heavenly conscription! O shining stars, beaming forth orthodoxy in the night of impiety, more precious than gold, more resplendent than emeralds and pearls. Though I yearn worthily to crown you with many titles, I am not granted leave to do so, being constrained by the limits of a letter; but, embracing the whole in a single phrase, let me say that your martyrdom is of equal weight with the martyrdoms above, since clearly he confesses Christ who confesses that he receives the icon [eikon, image] of Christ, just as the converse holds for denial; for the honor paid to the icon passes over to the prototype, as Basil the Great said, and the archetype is made manifest in the icon, as again Dionysius the all-wise said. And since Christ is a perfect man, lacking nothing of what is beheld in a man, he admits of being depicted in an image, like every man, just as he admits of being uncircumscribed, inasmuch as the same one is also perfect God. But if he were not inscribed with a bodily character, he would by no means be man; for the first and true sign that he is man is that he is depicted in an image. And I am not yet speaking of the Lady of all, the Theotokos [Mother of God], and, in sum, of all the saints, whose rejection is the abolition of their venerable icons; but he who understands understands, and he who rejects rejects to his ruin, speaking against the oracles [the Scriptures], and authority ever acts with authority. And God's [chosen ones are] few, even though all are his creatures; and in the end, against the God-summoned rock, from above and from the beginning, the gates of Hades dash themselves, but they have in no way prevailed, nor could they ever prevail against it, as is the promise of him who does not lie. Therefore, my fathers and brothers, stand fast in the faith, be men, be strong in the Lord. The choirs of the martyrs call you to themselves, and likewise those of the confessors. These things [I write] briefly, joining ourselves to you, we the least and absent in the spirit, that you may know that you have a last member, confined somewhere here, sharing in the same confession and asking you to take us up in your holy prayers, so that we may come after your honored footsteps.