Letter 55: Theodore Studite, Letter 55; Greek heading: Εἰρήνῃ πατρικίᾳ.

A written greeting is a love-working thing, producing affection in the souls of those who love, and so much the more as the conversation grows frequent, stirring up, as it were, the amorous sparks laid up within and rekindling the great disposition of love. Some such effect has the letter of your gracious self [emmeleia, a courtesy title, 'your Excellence/Gracefulness'] wrought also in us lowly ones, multiplying its spiritual friendship and settling more vigorously within us the embers of remembrance. Make use, therefore, most God-fearing lady, of this love-working remedy, and make known to us the matters of your well-being and good estate (for we know your ever-flourishing condition in virtue and your fruitfulness toward piety, both from the things we have heard and still are hearing, and from those in which we ourselves have been well treated and continue to be), whether you borrow another's voice [i.e. employ a scribe] or speak from your own tongue; for we, at least, perceive this rather with a sweet disposition, not attending to the bare sound, and at the same time knowing that nothing so portrays the soul as the word that proceeds from it, whatever sort it may be. Concerning the lady your daughter, having learned that things have come to such a pass, we were grieved; but what prayer or what anointing-balm shall we offer, being sinners as we are? Yet of this be assured, that such meddlesome devices [i.e. spells and sorceries] have no power at all, unless we ourselves give them room through some inattention; for just as it is not possible that a place illumined by the sun should admit the opposing darkness, so neither can a person who is supported by the divine light, that is, by understanding and virtue, suffer anything from those wicked and demonic enchantments. May the child, therefore, be healed in the name of the Lord, who cures every disease and every sickness, and may the hand of God hover about her and overshadow her head and drive away every harmful working, so that, restored to health together with her God-fearing mother, she may render her prayers in thanksgiving to the Lord.