Letter 413: Theodore Studite, Letter 413; Greek heading: Εὐφημίᾳ ἐγκλειστῇ.

Although we fall short of writing to your Honor more frequently, yet we have not forgotten to remember you in the Lord, on account of the fellowship of our common purpose and the generosity of your resolve, which is sufficient in itself. As we learn, from your earliest age you chose the cross-bearing life, and moreover the life of confinement [as an enclosed recluse]. And how great is your praise, bride of Christ! But I admonish you, cherishing you spiritually as a sister: hasten, lady, hasten to serve your Bridegroom. You who have been betrothed, separate yourself from every attachment, holding your whole heart and your whole soul and your whole mind in love toward your own Bridegroom. If this is so in the case of the perishable and fleeting [bridegroom], how much more in the case of the imperishable and immortal one? Thus ought we also (the saying is a common one) to be disposed toward the Lord and Master, and not to take our fill of longing for him, and in this to stand apart from every pleasure and corrupting attachment, since he too is held in love toward us and, as it were, stands beside himself with his boundless affection. For did he not, being God, take upon himself the form of a slave [Philippians 2:7] for your sake, that form which now the iconoclasts [eikonomachoi, the 'image-fighters' who reject the veneration of holy icons] dishonor? Did he not become poor, though he was rich [2 Corinthians 8:9]? Did he not endure all things grievous: insults, spittings, blows, scourgings, the cross, and death? So ought each soul to be disposed, as if his sufferings were for her alone, even though they were for all; and to be devoted, and to love, and to desire to suffer in return on equal terms. And even if perhaps it is not granted to bear these things, the resolve too has been accepted as a deed, since the good God shows such generosity. These things I write not as though you did not already have them ringing in your ears, but as one who is one soul with you in the Lord.