Letter 75: Theodore Studite, Letter 75; Greek heading: Ἰγνατίῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Μιλήτου.

I have hunted up a fine find in chancing upon a letter-carrier, by whom I inscribe to Your Holiness this letter now in hand, one worth no account in other respects, but possessing in the greatest possible measure a disposition of love. For we love you, O best of fathers, in a special way: not only as a God-blessed shepherd, inasmuch as you have been seen going forward into danger before others on behalf of the faith, having chosen every hardship, exile, and the stripping away of all things, but because you are also of the same habit [monastic garb] as ourselves and one of those who have been acquaintances and friends from the beginning; and I would add, also on account of the reverent piety which you have striven to stamp upon yourself in self-control. We rejoice, therefore, that we have so great and so eminent a father, or rather that the Church of God has in him a pillar and a foundation amid this grievous earthquake of impiety. For it is in truth an earthquake, in which the impious fall down, being without ballast, while of the pious some are shaken, but others suffer nothing whatsoever, by reason of their exceedingly steadfast heart. For this cause, the more numerous are the pillars and the spiritual foundations, the more are we too who are the weaker made secure. Blessed be God, who has shown forth your virtue in the present season all the more conspicuously. For this trial is a testing, or, to speak more properly, a smelting-furnace, that the elect may be made manifest and those who are otherwise may be exposed; for you are surely not without hearing, O God-honored one, of what sort and how many there are from each party. Wherefore, grieving, we groan at the tearing apart of the members, and at how the precious ones, even those to be weighed against gold, have been reckoned as vessels of clay. Those, then, are in such a state. But may the great hand of God guard you, our longed-for father, in health, shining forth in teaching, renowned for your boldness of speech, and praying both for the Church of Christ and for us the unworthy, that, following close behind, I may be in the footsteps of you all, being delivered from the evil one.