Letter 547: Theodore Studite, Letter 547; Greek heading: Μιχαὴλ συγκέλλῳ Ἁγιοπολίτῃ.

I am only now writing to Your Reverence, at the moment when it has by God's will been granted to me to find a bearer for the letter, since otherwise I would have been doing this very thing from the time of your imprisonment, and not once but twice and perhaps many times. For it is not the case that, because you are foreigners, we are of a different kind from you; rather, having been begotten of one mother, that is, of adoption, and having been shaped by the same stamp of sincere faith, we are both brothers and fellow-citizens, having Christ as our head. And since we are constituted as His body and members in part, we are bound both to rejoice together with one another in prosperous things and again to grieve in turn over things that are painful. But oh, how the rush of the present time forced you, who had set out to travel elsewhere, to fall into the snares of those who hold power here! What, then, is there to say in the face of these things? Perhaps that which the sacred Scripture says: "And the driver was driving Jehu" [cf. 2 Kings 9:20]. But there it was unto reigning over Israel, whereas here it is unto bearing witness to the truth, so that even now there may be fulfilled what was spoken: "Out of Zion shall go forth the word, and the law of the Lord out of Jerusalem" [Isaiah 2:3]. Here is the meaning, O blessed one: stand nobly, we exhort you. Glorify God indeed in your body and in your spirit, and say, you also, together with the divinely-inspired Paul: "I know that this shall turn out for me unto salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death; for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" [Philippians 1:19-21]. Behold the sweet contest, behold the blessed exchange: by brief afflictions and adversities, that is, by blows and droplets of blood, to become a god and to attain to God who truly is. You have therefore been set apart and made solitary, as we have heard, cut off in your resolve from those who have loved the present age, but you have been joined together with all who hold fast to the word of the truth. Hence the choir of the martyrs wishes to take you up whole and entire; from the other side the host of the confessors [those who suffered for the faith without dying] stretches out a hand to take you as a partner in their choir. Let us not, then, be left out of that fair dance, O venerable one, nor again let us put to shame the hopes of all, O thrice-longed-for one. How much labor would you have expended so that your name might become renowned for virtue among those here and there? But now, having ascended as upon a mountain of virtues through your confession, you have become manifest to the world and shine more brightly than the sun, by your word and your life alike, unto the glory of our Father who is in the heavens. You have been confined to a place that lies far off; you have been handed over to a blasphemous tongue — how much it has fawned upon you, how much it has spoken falsely and tried to bend you away from your lofty and divine resolve! But we know by report how great you yourself also are by the grace of Christ, holding fast the word of life, putting forth from your mouth a stream of wisdom to set fitting arguments against the empty propositions. And we, the lowly, say and make this clear, that chosen men, both of old and now, have presided over this hierarchical throne, having with skill of doctrine drawn up and issued the doctrine and the watchword concerning the venerable icons [holy images]; and, if it is right to speak in the apostle's manner, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" [Romans 5:20]. For the iconoclast heresy [heresy of those who war against the holy images], having come forth here as from the gates of Hades, has here also been abolished, and indeed it shall yet further be abolished by the breezes of the Holy Spirit, whenever Christ shall rebuke this sea which is truly wicked, about which the shipwrecks concerning the faith are many — caused not so much by perversion of mind as by fear of those in power. Yet many have leapt over the surge, being steered by the Holy Spirit, and the testimonies of the martyrs are many, and many are the writings of piety, refuting every error and disclosing the beauty of the truth to all faithful minds. Among these may Your Blessedness also be preserved, fighting the good fight, finishing the course, keeping the faith, unto the receiving of the crown of righteousness [cf. 2 Timothy 4:7-8]. So be it.