Letter 58: Theodore Studite, Letter 58; Greek heading: Τοῖς ἁγίοις μου πατράσι καὶ ὁμολογηταῖς Χριστοῦ, Ἰωάννῃ, Μιχαὴλ καὶ Βασιλείῳ.

And now I have judged it well to write to my fathers, and to write to them together, as to men deemed worthy of the same virtue and concord, or rather of the witness [martyria] of Christ. For since our good God has been pleased that we sinners too should be released from prison through the mediation of the good emperor, I offer you this letter as a kind of betrothal-gift, rejoicing and rejoicing together with you in your fatherhood and in your, so to speak, victory according to Christ. For you have indeed conquered the Evil One, O admirable men, both within through the wrestling of your reasonings and without through your inspired endurance, since you did not bend the knee to the serving dragon. For Leo, that most utterly wicked man [Emperor Leo V the Armenian], is manifestly the underling of that one, his attendant, the insulter of the icon [image] of Christ and the murderer of the saints; each agreeing with the other, and both having made a compact to do away with the name of Christ by the removal of His divine and venerated image [the proskynetos charakter, His likeness worthy of veneration]; since the time of the second divine appearing has not yet come, when Christ would be openly denied. But blessed be God, who has both destroyed the persecutor with a death notorious and befitting his apostasy (for it was fitting that he who had cut up the body of the Lord should himself be cut to pieces by the sword and so be torn from life), and has displayed you as crowned victors, winning glory for His own Church: anointers in virtue, a buttress of the faith, foundations of the truth, examples of steadfastness, in very truth guides, truly monastics, images of those blessed and anciently holy ones, who, having proved themselves manly in the like trials, were adorned with the unfading crown of righteousness, dancing eternally. Such are you, and your praise is higher than my utterly worthless tongue, which sings only so much as to discharge my duty to the occasion, to satisfy my longing, and to rekindle the spirit unto unceasing supplication that God may be invoked to cause the perfect good of peace to dawn upon us. For you see, O reverend ones, how the affairs of things still tremble? But He who is mighty is able to make the end shine forth auspiciously together with the beginning. Be entreated to pray concerning my lowliness, you who are ever to be revered.