Letter 511: Theodore Studite, Letter 511; Greek heading: Εὐδοκίμῳ σπαθαρίῳ.

This is the second time I am writing to your Honor, and on this occasion I do so prompted by Silvanus, our most reverend brother. For when he came to converse with me face to face, he broke our humble soul, recounting each particular: that you, our master, bear what has befallen you with thankfulness and refer your suffering to God, setting yourself outside the schemes that were contrived through human malice, and seeking one end alone, namely that you may render your life henceforth acceptable to the Master of all. In all these things he disposed us as was fitting, so that we said this: that the good man brings forth good things out of the good treasury of his heart. For indeed, as one who has stored up in your soul, as in some treasure-chamber, the cognitive treasures derived from your prior education, both divine and human, you fittingly bring forth, at a needful season, your spiritual riches, dispensing [oikonomia, the prudent ordering of affairs toward salvation] what is salutary in your own case. And see, good man, that the divine learning has turned out for your good - the reading and the recognition, the leisure and the diligent practice, the study and the prayer, the possession of the sacred words and writings. How exceedingly rich you are, even if but few of the provisions for living remain to you; how fair of countenance and beautiful of eye, even if by injustice you have been deprived of your sight; how very distinguished and renowned, even if you have resolved to endure a dishonored and inglorious life. And indeed this is altogether a kind of testing and assay of virtue: that, from those very things by which we seem to have been abandoned, we may from that source find ourselves benefited by God the good - who, through things right and left, through glory and dishonor, through ill repute and good repute, and the rest of the things which the apostolic voice set forth, knows how to order our life to our advantage. And this is an ancient doctrine, and one characteristic of the conduct of God-possessed men. Take for me Abel, the righteous one testified to by God's own judgment: did he not become the squandered victim of a brother's hand? That Enoch, who pleased God - did not God, on account of the corrupters of that time who were eager to corrupt him, snatch him away from their midst, removing him to places unknown, who also remains to this day, destined to be the herald of the second appearing of Christ? Consider Abraham, tried by God in many ways, whose proving of faith was more precious than gold, indeed far more so. And, to pass over the others - who are many and cannot be commemorated within the measure of a letter - take Job, the man of countless trials perhaps: if we compare our own circumstances with his sufferings, we should find ourselves falling short, and we shall join in uttering his celebrated cry, taking it up on every occasion. So then we exhort you, longed-for one, to arrange your own affairs and the season of misfortune and manifold suffering by a better reckoning, and by a firmly believing judgment to transmute it into good fortune and well-being. For the man so firmly fixed, and living in confidence in God, none of human things will move, since he has shown himself loftier than all the things that are wont to cause grief. And if you say that, while listening to the one who reads, you turn to sleep, it is no wonder; for the removal of sight naturally produces this. And if you say that you have no work at hand, your bodily nature being idle, let it not concern you at all. The apostle says: you have a psalm, you have a teaching, you have a tongue, you have a revelation; let all things be done for edification. Eat, drink, sleep - only possess thankfulness, and read whatever is laid up within you at home and in the natural book of the mind. And a little later you will look up with a great gaze and behold the unapproachable light, Jesus the Son of God, coming from heaven with the glory of his power in flaming fire, judging some as deserving of judgment, and glorifying others as fellow-witnesses of glory - among whom may you also be, my dearest and most honored one, shining forth equal to the beam of the sun. As for the suburban estate which you have predestined to be established as a monastery, if anything else has likewise or otherwise been determined upon for good, God has received all things as already accomplished, provided that you bear with thankfulness the deprivation of all things. Pray for us sinners; for now it is not we who are the sinners, but rather even any one of the holy ones might beg your intercession, since you are wearied with sufferings. Our most God-loving brother and archbishop sends you very many greetings.