Letter 493: Theodore Studite, Letter 493; Greek heading: Ἡγουμένῳ.

God has given a very great gift in the province in which we live, most honored brother: the most renowned curator [a high financial and administrative official], a man supreme in piety, in that, having become a champion of Christ, he brought under his hand the man who was conducting himself like a brigand among the Christians, although he had formerly been a thing consecrated to God through monastic perfection. I mean Ammoun, once our brother, but now placed under your hand through the mediation of that admirable man, by the good pleasure of Christ himself, who rejoices over the salvation of the one who was lost. What a marvelous work has been accomplished by the God-loving curator, and one worthy of the virtue that is in him; and not only his, but yours as well, the spiritual father who has taken up the one who was lost upon your shoulders, as Christ did. And so I, the lowly one, was gladdened and rejoiced, because the lost has been found and the one cast out has been brought home. And thanks be to the might and mercy of the glory of God, who both had mercy on that man and restored me, the lowly one, from my despondency; for I had been despondent for many years over the loss of my son. You, therefore, by the mercy of God have now become his father, through the help of the good mediator, and may you yourself lead him forward to God for the time to come; for behold, I hand him over into your hands as though from the eyewitness testimony of my own eyes, and let him be called your disciple and let him be your disciple to the end, and you shall inherit his reward forever. And you shall read this letter over to him, so that he may have its security, just as I have written to him himself as well. And let the word of the Apostle be fulfilled: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ [Galatians 6:2]; may he guard you together with all your God-chosen brotherhood, while you pray also for us sinners for the better things.