Letter 421: Theodore Studite, Letter 421; Greek heading: Τοῖς ἁγίοις ὁμολογηταῖς πατράσι καὶ ἀδελφοῖσ.

Now is the time to cry aloud with David and say: Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; praise befits the upright. Sing to him and chant psalms to him, because the Lord has hearkened, together with all those equal to you in renown, to your earnest supplication. And what has come to pass? The impious one has perished; he who cut us down has been shattered. You have conquered the son of wickedness, you have cast down the beast of wrath, the crooked-minded intellect. Oh, oh, you thrice-longed-for ones, how mighty is your blood! This it was that dashed down the accursed tormentor; this it was that poured out the polluted blood of the murderer, seeing that the one who cannot lie promised to hearken to those who cry out to him night and day, even as the oracles [the Scriptures] declare. Learn, you defiler of Christ, how great was the power of the cry of those whose flesh you tore apart. Know, you arch-abomination, how great against Christ was your accomplishment: since you kept kicking against the goads, you cracked open headlong, and there was poured out from you - if not your entrails, then the polluted blood - in three gashes, as one who had given offense against the Trinity through his outrage upon the holy image [icon] of Christ. Depart with Judas, you Judas-minded one; go meet your father Uralyphios Caballonymos [an abusive coinage joining 'horse-' or 'dung-name', echoing the slur 'Copronymus' applied to the iconoclast emperor Constantine V]. Drink this first, as the prophet says, and the bitterer draught at the last. Oh, the Christ-madness of that man, and oh, your confession! You are men who bear Christ, nurslings of piety, ointments of immortality, monuments [set up] against the enemy; you are the sinews of the Church, the bulwark of the faith, the glory of all that is beneath the sun. Your memorial is auspicious, which the time to come also shall receive; your crown is heavenly, fittingly entwined with the flowers of song. What remains? God must be praised, and thanks must be given to the pious emperor, because for the present he has released [you] from your imprisonments and torments; and we must hope that the God who gave the firstfruits as a favorable beginning will also bring the end together with that beginning, causing the horn of peace-pouring orthodoxy to spring up. Only I beg you to remember me in your prayers more fervently, and to take heed to yourselves at all times, because, as long as we draw breath, the tempter is at hand. Your brother Nicholas greets you according to custom.