Letter 469: Theodore Studite, Letter 469; Greek heading: Θωμᾷ πατριάρχῃ Ἱεροσολύμων.

How greatly we, the humble, rejoiced at having been deemed worthy of the most wise address conveyed through your letter, your supreme Beatitude may perceive; you who, exalted in the apostolic rank and holding through lawful succession the office [literally "person"] of the brother of God [James, "brother of the Lord," first bishop of Jerusalem], might fittingly honor us, who go without such honors among our people, even with a bare word of greeting, let alone with the heights of such great praises, from which we fall so far short that we almost dare not suppose these things were said about us by you, but rather that the encomia belong to some other of the manly men, that is, to our most divinely inspired chief shepherd [Patriarch Nikephoros of Constantinople], to whom every word of commendation, from everyone, may rightly be ascribed. Yet how else could your God-imitating and compassionate disposition have been shown forth, unless it were celebrated in triumph by fatherly affections, like the leaping forth of the sun, scattered abroad in rays? And how else could your being of one soul and one mind with us have been made known, unless it were marked off in contrast to those who have deserted to the adversaries, whatever sort they may have been? Concerning these matters, even if it is rather bold on our part, it is nonetheless just to say (what is it?) that, when the heresy [the second iconoclasm] had boiled up in persecution, it was necessary that those preeminent on the lofty thrones, as allies of the Spirit and full of the apostolic injunctions, should be moved together in brotherly love, and stretch out a hand in fitting compassion to those who labor on behalf of the truth; for, as it says, "if one member suffers, all the members suffer together; and if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together" [1 Corinthians 12:26], the head, that is, of the whole ecclesiastical body being Christ, our true Lord and God. And as for how much good the apostolic one [the pope] of the West accomplished by doing this very thing, what need is there even to speak? On the one hand he strengthened to the utmost the resolve of those who stood firm (since even a small inclination is wont to instill strength in the one who labors), and on the other hand he struck down, with a reproof set in motion by the Spirit, the insolence of the impious; than which what could be more salutary? But as for those to whom it was permitted to do this, and who did not in fact do it at all, but rather the contrary - I, wretched as I am, cannot say, out of reverence for the angel of your Beatitude, how great the accusation against them would be. But those affairs have reached their end, just as has been heard by all, since the good God has put out of the way the accursed dragon [the emperor Leo V the Armenian], indeed by an extraordinary death, and one just for his apostasy; not so, however, the present circumstances, as one might have supposed. How so? Because the winter has passed, yet by no means has the longed-for spring come, except insofar as a certain clear sky has begun faintly to gleam - and even this is obscured by a cloud from the east. For it suffices, I think, to leave the discourse at the image, since neither does your great-mindedness need instruction, nor again does the present time permit us to say things more plainly. For which reason your sacred letters [literally "horns," the projecting tips of a scroll] also remained undelivered; for how could they have been delivered, when we, the lowly, are cast away somewhere here farther off from the city, just as others of the persecuted are scattered elsewhere? And indeed the collections [of alms], as we had longed for, have not yet taken place, except the one that has occurred, as has been indicated in the inserted note, those who gave confessing that they received rather than gave a favor, in that they were deemed worthy to have some communion in the most holy places, in which the great mystery of piety was accomplished - God appeared in our form (O the utterly unspeakable wonder!) - whom, written also in the painted image [icon] according to the tradition handed down from the fathers, that is, according to God's proclamation, we, or rather all that is under heaven, confess and venerate [proskynesis - the act of reverence offered to icons] from the very starting-line of the preaching (for Christ could not otherwise be confessed, as you most blessed ones teach, but the ill-named iconoclasts have denied Him in Jewish fashion, as those energized by an evil spirit); and whom, O divine and sacred head, may you make propitious by your God-inclined prayers, so as to turn aside the people-deceiving heresy, to kindle the sun of orthodoxy, and then also to preserve us, the very least who are counted among your children, who follow our most blessed father and high priest. So be it. Both I and my brother, the most God-beloved archbishop of Thessalonica [Joseph, Theodore's brother], send abundant greetings to the fathers and renowned brothers of ours who minister to you; for at your holy countenance, or rather before your feet, it is more becoming that we both, and as many as are with us, be blessed than that we speak.