Letter 481: Theodore Studite, Letter 481; Greek heading: Τῇ ἡγουμένῃ Ἰγνῶν.

I have welcomed your piety, sister in the Lord, both for the gifts you sent and for the dispositions in which you regard our affairs. But we are not such as you suppose; for we who do not even suffice for ourselves in good things, how could we impart to others a teaching that bears the likeness of the good? But may it be granted you to conduct yourself in a manner worthy of God according to your faith, completing the life of virginity blamelessly, and moreover to administer the rank of governance [the office of hegoumene, abbess] without incurring condemnation. For know that the matter brings great reward, but for those who are not attentive it is also perilous, namely to rule over souls that have been made according to the image of God. Therefore, as one who rules in the Lord, lead and guide your flock aright, setting yourself forth as a pattern of every good thing, so that you may be counted worthy to say, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." For God has handed over to you these souls through their renunciation [of the world], and you must offer them to Him as an acceptable sacrifice; and in this your reward in the heavens will be great. Teach them, admonish them in the saving commandments: to long for Christ alone, and not for flesh and blood; to be without possessions, and to have nothing as private property; to be free of attachment, and not to be partial toward their kinsfolk; to be eager in work, and not to be sluggish toward ascetic discipline. For if it be so, the Bridegroom Christ will meet them a little later as they carry their lamps, and they will be met with great joy; He will greet them and be greeted in a holy manner; He will open to them the heavenly bridal chamber not made by hands; He will give them the kingdom of the heavens, the delight of paradise, draughts of immortality, the sweetnesses of everlasting life; He will clothe them in garments of light, He will adorn them with adornments of incorruptibility, with the diadems of the bridal procession, He will fill them with boundless good things unto ages of ages. For these things both you and they must labor; press on day by day to work out your own salvation; refresh yourselves with hopes; quench the fire introduced into your souls by the enemy with divine love; and whatever else is burdensome in the ascetic discipline, console it by taking up the divine readings and chants. Guard also against communion with the heresy [iconoclasm, here the refusal to venerate holy images]; and even if it be necessary to suffer something for this, even unto death, by no means surrender the faith. For nothing is to be preferred above the love of Christ, as the virgins of Christ from the beginning of the ages have shown down to the present, since even now there are some being persecuted and driven out of their monasteries for Christ's sake rather than partake of the heretical bread. These things I have written to you, as to one who is a sister and daughter according to Christ, and to those who are with you, so that you may see that the Master of us both is in common, and that we desire all to be saved, since we are members of one body of Christ and from Him are reckoned brothers and sisters of one another. For in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, but Christ is all and in all; may He keep both us and you in safety.