Letter 487: Theodore Studite, Letter 487; Greek heading: Στεφάνῳ ἡγουμένῳ.

The frequency of your letters shows the love of your honored self growing ever more abundant, supported as it is by a fatherly custom; for that blessed man too [our late father; presumably the deceased abbot Plato or a former superior], besides his other accomplishments, by this very practice used to foster among the brethren the good of love. Write, therefore, O thrice-longed-for one, acting as a father in this matter and making us the more glad by the continual sound of your voice. Yet do not praise us, nor compare lead with gold, nor mud with a pearl, but rather pray that we too may follow behind you who are that man's disciples, since I am useless in all things, even though you say, in your loving disposition, that you derive benefit from us who are without benefit. And if anything profitable should come to you, the matter must be ascribed to God, who dispenses [oikonomei, administers by dispensation] through one another and in one another the things that are needful. So let this stand. But concerning those who have recovered through repentance: that those who have already escaped the fall should be received with a sealing [the marking of the sign of the cross] over the table, or on some other occasion, has already, in the time of the holy fathers, one may almost say, been examined in synod and ratified as being well, and the matter is well received by us, the lowly, and is both observed by ourselves and imparted to others. If, then, you too wish to hold to this practice, we both approve and accept it; for to refuse certain people is a work of self-imposed religion [ethelothreskeia, will-worship], which is condemned by the Apostle, and which possesses neither what is lawful nor what is brotherly. For from what source do they find security, when neither does a canon decree it nor does our divinely-inspired hierarch forbid us to accept this? Or is it not rather destructive of repentance and despairing of salvation, that the one deemed worthy to partake of the holy things and to mark himself with the cross-shaped image [eikon] should not be permitted to seal common food, whether privately or publicly? Or do we not know that our good God and Lord, the only sinless one, who takes away the sin of the world, allowed his undefiled feet to be handled by a harlot and to be anointed with tears as with myrrh? But he even eats with tax-collectors and among tax-collectors, and makes disciples of tax-collectors; and nothing is so dear to him as that which turns a person back from sin and that which is loving toward one another. Hence too he describes his disciples as being marked by this characteristic, and indeed he sets forth the blessed Peter, after his denial, as the foremost of the remaining apostles. What is greater than this for the establishment of the present argument? And what is more senseless than those who, ignorantly and conceitedly, refuse to seal and to pray for those who have already been bettered by repentance? We, therefore, the lowly, hold this view, as has been said before, and we counsel it to you as well; but others, holding otherwise, will see to it concerning this matter. And to the things which our brother Symeon asked, we have replied; and we, the lowly, desire in all things to be a comfort to your reverences, and we pray that you may be preserved unharmed in all things.

Ἡ συχνότης τῶν γραμμάτων πυκνουμένην δείκνυσι τὴν ἀγάπην τῆς τιμιότητός σου, πατρικῷ ἔθει ἐπερειδομένην· κἀκεῖνος γὰρ ὁ μακάριος πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις αὐτοῦ κατορθώμασι καὶ τῷδε τῷ ἐπιτηδεύματι δημιουργῶν ἦν πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς τὸ τῆς ἀγάπης καλόν. γράφε τοίνυν, ὦ τριπόθητε, πατρῴζων ἐν τούτῳ, ἡμᾶς τε ἡδείους ποιῶν τῷ συνεχεῖ τοῦ φθέγματος· μὴ μέντοι ἐπαίνει μηδὲ σύγκρινε χρυσῷ μόλιβδον μηδὲ μαργαρίτῃ πηλόν, προσεύχου δὲ μᾶλλον καὶ ὑμῶν τῶν ἐκείνου ὀπαδῶν κατόπιν ἰέναι διὰ τὸ ἀχρεῖόν με εἶναι ἐν πᾶσι, κἂν αὐτὸς ὠφελεῖσθαι λέγοις πρὸς ἡμῶν τῶν ἀνωφελῶν, ἀγαπητικῶς φερόμενος. εἰ δὲ καί τι ὀνησιφόρον σου γίνοιτο, θεῷ τὸ πρᾶγμα ἀναθετέον, τῷ δι' ἀλλήλων καὶ ἐν ἀλλήλοις οἰκονομοῦντι τὰ κατὰ χρείαν. Εἶεν δὴ ταῦτα. πρὸς δὲ τῶν ἐκ μετανοίας ἀνασφηλάντων, σφραγῖδα ἐπὶ τραπέζης ἢ κατὰ ἄλλην τινὰ περιπέτειαν δεδέχθαι τοὺς ἤδη διαπεφευγότας τὸν ὄλισθον, ἤδη ἐπὶ πατέρων ἁγίων, σχεδὸν εἰπεῖν, συνοδικῶς συνεζητήθη καὶ συνεκροτήθη εὖ ἔχειν, καὶ ἡμῖν τοῖς ταπεινοῖς εὐαπόδεκτον τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ φυλαττόμενον καὶ ἄλλοις μεταδιδόμενον. εἰ οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς οὕτω βούλοιο κρατεῖν, καὶ ἐπαινοῦμεν καὶ ἀποδεχόμεθα· τὸ γάρ τινας ἀπαναίνεσθαι ἐθελοθρησκείας ἐστὶν ἔργον, κατηγορουμένης ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐχούσης οὔτε τὸ ἔννομον οὔτε τὸ φιλάδελφον. πόθεν γὰρ ἐρείδονται τὸ ἀσφαλὲς ἔχειν, μήτε κανόνος θεσπίζοντος μήτε τοῦ θεσπεσίου ἡμῶν ἱεράρχου ἀπείργοντος ἡμᾶς τοῦτο δέχεσθαι; ἢ οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἀναιρετικόν ἐστι μετανοίας καὶ ἀπογνωστικόν ἐστι σωτηρίας τὸ τὸν ἀξιούμενον μετέχειν τῶν ἁγιασμάτων καὶ σημειοῦν ἑαυτὸν τῇ σταυροειδεῖ εἰκόνι μὴ ἐξεῖναι σφραγίζειν βρῶμα κοινὸν εἴτε ἰδίᾳ εἴτε δημοσίᾳ; ἢ οὐκ ἴσμεν ὅτι ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἡμῶν θεὸς καὶ Κύριος, ὁ μόνος ἀναμάρτητος καὶ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, ὑπὸ πόρνης τοὺς ἀχράντους πόδας ἠνέσχετο καὶ χειραπτεῖσθαι καὶ ὑπαλείφεσθαι δάκρυσιν ὥσπερ καὶ μύρῳ; ἀλλὰ καὶ μετὰ τελωνῶν ἐσθίει καὶ παρὰ τελώναις καὶ μαθητεύει τελώνας· καὶ οὐδὲν αὐτῷ οὕτω φιλητὸν ὡς τὸ ἐπιστρεπτικὸν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας καὶ ἀγαπητικὸν ἐπ' ἀλλήλοις. ἐντεῦθεν καὶ χαρακτηρίζεσθαι τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ ὑπογράφει, καί γε τὸν μακάριον Πέτρον μετὰ τὴν ἄρνησιν πρώταρχον τῶν λοιπῶν ἀποστόλων ἀναδείκνυσιν· οὗ τί μεῖζον εἰς παράστασιν τοῦ προκειμένου λόγου; τί δὲ ἀσυνετώτερον τῶν ἀμαθῶς καὶ οἰηματικῶς μὴ καταδεχομένων σφραγίζειν καὶ προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἤδη τῇ μετανοίᾳ βελτιωθέντας; Ἡμεῖς τοιγαροῦν οἱ ταπεινοὶ οὕτως ἔχομεν, ὡς προείρηται, καὶ ὑμῖν συμβουλεύομεν, ἄλλοι δέ, ἄλλως ἔχοντες, ὄψονται περὶ τούτου. πρὸς ἃ δὲ ὁ ἀδελφὸς ἡμῶν Συμεὼν ἠρώτησεν, ἀπεκρίθημεν, καὶ ἐφιέμεθα ἐν πᾶσι πρὸς ἀνάπαυσιν ὑμῶν εἶναι τῶν σεβασμίων οἱ ταπεινοὶ καὶ εὐχόμεθα ἀσινεῖς ὑμᾶς διαφυλάττεσθαι ἐν πᾶσιν.