Letter 505: Theodore Studite, Letter 505; Greek heading: Λυκάστῳ ὑπάτῳ.

The very man who carries this little letter to Your Honor reported to us the misfortune that has befallen you, and in truth our grief for you laid hold of us; for you are our own kinsman and near relation, and at the same time an old friend and one of the same age, and it is not possible for one who loves sincerely not to suffer together with the one he loves, just as, conversely, he shares in his joy. But oh, the message we would have prayed against! She has departed from us, the lady, the wife of the consul [hypatissa, the wife of a man holding the rank of consul] -- as the saying goes, a woman among those who are praised, as we have both heard from others and ourselves perceived with our own eyes; first of all because she was a lover of her husband, which is sketched out by the Apostle [Paul, Titus 2:4] as the finest thing in marriage; prudent, a keeper of the home, gracious in receiving people, easy of address, a lover of piety, a lover of the poor, and, what is greater, adorned with chastity [sophrosyne] and silvered over with orthodoxy [right belief], whose fruits also, her children, are a testimony to the good life of you both. For just as the tree is recognized from its fruit, so too the parents are recognized from their children, of what sort and how great they are. And although I have not yet had deep experience of that blessed woman, how could I extol the things concerning her? Or rather, having only twice been brought together with her and come into conversation, I knew that God had granted you a wife who is in truth a helper, not after the manner of the first mother of old, a cause of deception, but rather one who became for you a ground of salvation throughout your whole life. Oh, the calamity! She is gone, she has flown away from your eyes, she has left you half-dead, torn away from your good yokefellow. We no longer have it to behold with our eyes that comfort which surpasses all gladness of heart, nor the encouragement in afflictions, nor the consolation in misfortunes, nor, in all that is due, the reminder and the fellow-worker and the partner in action. The sun of the hearth has set; who is the one to meet us? Who is the one to give joy? Who is the one to encourage? Already we have become like a city that has shorn off its own adornment, like a solitary sparrow upon a housetop, to speak in the manner of David [Psalm 102:7]. What then? Are we to grieve beyond measure and clothe ourselves in inconsolable mourning? By no means, then, by no means, O thrice-longed-for one; but rather, knowing that the God who gave her to us in the first place for the partnership of life is himself the one who has now taken her back, let us bear what has happened with thanksgiving, imitating the celebrated Job and uttering aloud that blessed saying which he uttered not over the loss of a wife, but over ten children dead together, along with the earlier removals of all his outward possessions and that final blow to the body itself, when the man who had formerly been a king sat upon the dung-heap and scraped the discharge of his own flesh with potsherds, and said these words: 'The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so also has it come to pass' [Job 1:21]. If therefore, O friend, we both dispose ourselves toward these things and utter them concerning ourselves, we would not be far from the portion of those men; but rather we would also make this a fair epitaph for that blessed woman, and we would, through ourselves, shape those very branches given to you by God [your children] into an image [eikon] of a manner of life pleasing to God, and from this point everything would turn out for the good for you. For the things which God the eternal, the Master of all, works in us -- may he find us receiving them graciously -- how would he not also dispose well for us the present circumstances through the consolation of his Holy Spirit, and prepare the enjoyments to come throughout endless ages? These things I, even if briefly, have nevertheless written and offered as encouragement, as one who is yours in love; and do you yourself, O master, deem your own precious children worthy to address us on our behalf.