Letter 540: Theodore Studite, Letter 540; Greek heading: Ὑπακοῇ μοναζούσῃ.

Those who have taken up the solitary [monastic] life and have thereby been crucified to the world, inasmuch as they have already risen above fleshly attachments and relationships, are not by nature inclined to be bent down by the changing circumstances of their kinsfolk, nor to grieve at their deaths. But since we find that even in the case of the saints themselves they were bent low at the suffering of their blood-relations and let fall a warm tear at their deaths, we too judge it nothing strange to have suffered the same things, and most of all over a brother, and a brother most excellent in both prudence and distinction, one who held, as it were, the rank of a father in his care over your household. Truly grievous is the suffering, sister in the Lord, and the blow has touched your heart as though from a cutting knife. What is this? For the matter must be unveiled. The lord, the brother, as they say, has fallen asleep; a good man has departed, the eye of the family has been quenched, your comfort has flown away. Orphaned are the children whom he bore, and you yourself are orphaned together with the sisters, having nowhere to lean your hand when you sink down, nor anywhere to look when you are beset on every side. But why do we lament the suffering at greater length? Our word is addressed to one dear to God, to one intelligent, to one sensible, to one of much experience, to one full of divine knowledge, able even to bring others to soberness by your own example. Bring forth from the good treasury of your heart the spiritual wealth, the medicines of consolation, providing sufficiency both for yourself and for the sisters; for we know that grief has touched them equally, since it has touched also the lady superior, and indeed the whole family, and I would add even the senate itself. Who would not groan over him? Who would not let fall tears, seeing that grief has touched even us lowly ones, although we philosophize in this way? But since we have looked to the fact that no one who has come to birth fails also to depart from the things here, and this from our forefather Adam down to the present, we have considered nothing strange in what has happened; yet strange it would be if your God-taught heart should not bear it thankfully, becoming a model together with the lady superior to the sisters and the cousins and all the kindred. Dispose all things courageously, according to your custom, magnanimously assisting so far as is possible the household of your brother as well, so that those who lie in wait amid the circumstances of human affairs may not overrun it while it is desolate. Take thought therefore, so far as is possible, also for the honored soul of that good man, since even after death those who have departed are helped by the living. And in a word, we know that you dispose all things well in all matters, and that you command your reason rather than being commanded by despondency and distress. For this very purpose we have also sent the brother Athanasius, displaying our deep feeling toward the man and our compassion toward your honored self; whom we pray you will receive quickly, since he comes as a good messenger of your thankful endurance.