Letter 508: Theodore Studite, Letter 508; Greek heading: Εἰρήνῃ πατρικίᾳ.

Since you have addressed us, the lowly ones, my lady, through the most reverend presbyter, we repay your greeting with a letter, welcoming your good faith and your fervent confidence, having recognized from this that you are good among women, a lover of God and a lover of monks, so that it is fitting to utter that saying of Scripture: "Blessed is the husband of a good wife" [Sirach 26:1]. Do you see, O lady, that by your goodness your lord the patrician [patrikios, a high Byzantine court rank], your God-given husband, is called blessed by the Scripture? Therefore, in your zeal, strive zealously to make him still more blessed. And how might this come about? By your becoming yet better, that is, by reminding him, exhorting him, and earnestly entreating him to administer the high office of the generalship [strategia, the command of a military province] in a God-loving manner, just as indeed he does administer it: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep himself unstained from injustice, to be a lover of monks and a lover of the poor, tempered with gentleness, since this authority of his is sufficient to overawe those under his hand; and moreover to refrain from threatening, and when he chastises, to do so as a corrector, striking with humanity and in due measure. For neither is utter laxity in every respect wholesome, nor is excessive harshness in punishment acceptable; and, above all else, let him be orthodox in the faith. For even if, with regard to the outward sphere, it is possible to say that he is unable to keep this according to past circumstances (although not even this is sufficient as a defense before God, for nothing is to be preferred to His love), nevertheless, according to the inner man, it is possible to preserve this, and for him to be reckoned a savior of many, both of monks and of laymen, both of rulers and of those who are ruled. These things, moved by spiritual love toward you, we have made bold to call to mind, knowing that even without being reminded you hold fast to the good.