Letter 447: Theodore Studite, Letter 447; Greek heading: Ἀνθίμῳ τέκνῳ.

The law of God, and the fear and trembling of Him, as it says: "I have set you as a watchman to the house of Israel" [Ezekiel 3:17]—the very office of this watch has compelled me, brother, once again by letter to announce to you the sword of God that is coming upon you: a fearful sword, a fiery sword, a sword that casts not the body but the soul into the Gehenna of fire [hell] for ages without end. And I weep as I write, wretched man that I am, and I groan bitterly, because this word is against my own son and disciple. But what am I to suffer? If I do not announce it, God has said that He will require your blood from my hands [Ezekiel 3:18], so that nothing else awaits me than to share in the very same judgment of punishment. O brother, why have you so shut the eye of your heart? Why have you despised God, at whose glance the whole universe shakes and cannot bear to stand firm? You leapt away long ago from the wrestling-school of the ascetic life; you went off into places that the Lord does not oversee; you broke the seal of chastity; you corrupted soul and body; you became a slave of sin. Then at last, in the beginning of the persecution [the second iconoclast persecution under Emperor Leo V], you returned to us, confessing, accepting reproof, promising to make the journey back after the persecution had ceased. On this account you were both established in the rule by the steward [the oikonomos, the monastery's administrator] and received by brother Dionysios, and you chose the good exile, passing from wicked places into good places, over which are the eyes of the Lord, and the blessedness of persecution encircling above your head. And well done for the recall, the cleansing, the angelic assistance! What then has happened again? What has driven you out of God and handed you over to the devil? Alas for my misery! You have turned back again to the mire of sin, corrupting and being corrupted by a woman—or rather by women. Lord, have mercy; spare, O God! Your guardian angel has forsaken you; Satan has taken you up. Are you even alive, wretched one? And how can he be alive who is being devoured by the manslayer [the devil; cf. John 8:44]? Do you even see the light? And how can he see who has been darkened by sin? Do you even pray to God? And how can he draw near to the Lord who has enslaved himself to the devil? Where is your good beginning, the fervor, the compunction, the obedience, the tears, the God-winged prayer, the heavenly way of life? They are all gone, they have all perished. Oh, what bitter groans I make over your folly! Would that you were an irrational animal, which does not come to judgment; but because you are God-fashioned, destined to rise again and to be judged, this is pitiable. Come now, my lost son, come, turn back to the Lord, for being exceedingly loving toward mankind He receives you again, heals you again, leads you again as a bride to the bridal chamber, again slaughters the fatted calf [the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:11-32] and, rejoicing, will summon together the powers above over your finding. Do not, then, be disobedient, my son, my son, but be recalled, but return, joined together with your good brother Dionysios, before the sword of eternal death overtakes you.