Letter 548: Theodore Studite, Letter 548; Greek heading: Ὑπακοῇ μοναζούσῃ.

Although we shrink from writing, nevertheless we are compelled to open a grateful and praise-giving mouth to Your Honor. How long, then, will you not cease, good mother, to lend yourself to us? How long will your gifts not leave off being conveyed to us from here and from there? And most of all now, when so many grievous things have hemmed you in, on account of which we were the more moved to write, having learned that you acted thus and so concerning the relics of your blessed brother. For they say that you opened the coffin, when it arrived from abroad, then embraced the body and took it into your arms, reburying the dead man, as it were, in other fresh linen cloths. Who, then, would not marvel at your love for your brother? And who, being present at that time, would not have poured out tears, would not have lamented warmly, when even we, situated farther off, were touched by the suffering from hearsay alone, and it pained our heart exceedingly? O bitter tidings! O mournful encounter! What were we, and what have we become? Of a sudden orphaned, bereft of a brother. Perhaps even the sun groaned as it looked upon what was happening, and the moon wept at what had come to pass, and the stars were darkened as though grieving-or to say anything else of the elements, each having suffered the like. What then? Shall we persist in our griefs? Shall we be darkened together with the cloud of sorrow and become like those who have no hope? By no means, sister in the Lord. For our affairs are not unprovided for, nor without hope, as among the uninitiated nations [pagans], but are in the hands of God, who holds all things together, from whom we ourselves came into being, and those who begot us, from whom we have obtained both breath and life, and the being advanced to this profession of virginity, the greatest of dignities. We have wept, then, as was fitting, over our brother; now is the time for consolation, now the day for thanksgiving. Let us put off, then, the garb of mourning and put on the armor of magnanimity. We have sent on ahead a good brother, in appearance and in mind and in faith, just as before our kinsmen and those who begot us; a little later we too shall follow, and there is no one who has been born and is not buried. Let us, then, prepare ourselves also for the departure, let us make ready the provisions for the passing over, let us form the sisters by our own bearing both to mourn in due season and to give thanks fittingly; let us show to those who look on that God is glorified in us, given thanks for the things he commands. He gave, he also has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so also it came to pass. Yes, I beseech Your Honor, who are to me as a mother and one who gave birth-or rather as a most beloved sister-let us send up a voice of praise, let us show a countenance of brightness, let us teach by deeds that we bear the cross upon our shoulders and that by our deliberate choice we have died and that we yield in all things to the divine affairs. If you act thus, how good a thing it is, you will gladden Christ, your immortal bridegroom; whereas, if you grieve, you grieve him, as is to be expected, as one who loves another more than him. Do you see whither the discourse has led you, as being neither orphaned, nor without oversight, nor without a protector? For if God is with us, who is against us? If he himself is the one who tends us, who is the one who opposes us? Thus also now I have been moved, sister, to console you; and you, faring well, would do well to be persuaded by an unwise old man who counsels well and who truly suffers fellow-feeling, as is owed, regarding your concerns as his own.