Letter 488: Theodore Studite, Letter 488; Greek heading: Κατηχητικὴ πρὸς τοὺς ἐν Κυζίκῳ.

We were glad to see those around brother Symeon, who has been appointed as your head, partly because of his absence over time, and partly because of his good way of life [politeia]; for it is a good way of life, both for him and for you, that so many brothers should live together in one place in these times of persecution. For where two or three happen to be gathered, it is worthy of praise, since Christ mediates among them according to the promise; but that there should be so many of you, a whole monastery and a great community, the commendation is beyond dispute. And thanks be to the Lord, who has granted you in one spirit, with one soul, to strive together for the faith of the gospel, and at the same time to carry through the ascetic life as a contest, and to bring to completion in this a luminous and crowning struggle. We wished also to see you yourselves, the absent ones, with our own eyes, and to be encouraged together by the fellowship of the spirit, so that we might learn the name and face and character and word of each one of you; but since this could not come to pass, we have already seen you through your superior [the proegoumenos, the prior or leader of the community] and through your fellow members of the same rank, the sight of whom nourished our hearts, marked as it was by reverence. What, then, remains to be said? It is this: that, just as by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ you have been gathered and joined together in spiritual harmony and in like-minded unity of soul, shining forth in that place like certain stars in the gloomy night of the heresy [the iconoclast heresy], so also for the future you may remain the same, of one soul, minded as one, of one accord, submissive, obedient, ready to listen, thankful, easily summoned, lovers of purity, temperate, without presumptuous outspokenness, complete, fully equipped for every good work, still shining, still gleaming, still radiating light, still salting, so that it might fittingly be said of you also by the Lord: You are the light of the world; and again: You are the salt of the earth. And perhaps, since you dwell in the mountainous region, that other saying too might suitably be sung over you: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden -- a mountain, that is, of lofty way of life, upon which those who have ascended dwell upon the earth as though in heaven, of whom the world is not worthy, according to what is said by the Apostle. See, children and brothers, how the word of truth has lifted you up, placing you on high with its commendations and showing you to be true monks, confessors of Christ, fugitives from the world, men of the higher desires, slayers of the passions of the flesh, wearers of the crown in the spirit. And these for now are but bare words of recompense; but if you carry out your contest of both submission and confession in the most lordly manner, then, when you depart from this life, you will receive the blessedness that is the reward of your works -- which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.