Letter 76: Theodore Studite, Letter 76; Greek heading: Ἰωάννῃ ἡγουμένῳ Χαλκίτου.

I had wished to use Silvanus, our spiritual child, as the bearer of the present letter, the one from whom I also received the greeting that was sent to me by Your Holiness at the time when he was being dispatched into exile for the Lord's sake. But since this did not prove possible for me in the meanwhile, by means of the messengers [apokrisiarioi, official letter-carriers] whom I have just now found I have thought it fitting to address Your Honor. Rejoice, O good brother, or rather, most longed-for of fathers to me: you are sharing exile with Christ, you are suffering together with Him who suffered for you. Well done, that you have taken up a spiritual chariot; well done, that you have counted all things as refuse for Christ's sake. Beautiful is the monastery which you established through many labors and sweats, outshining the islands round about both by the situation of the place and by not a few other distinctions. But behold what a living plot of paradise this has won for you in advance; and perhaps God will not even be unable to give that very place back to you, if indeed He so wills. You have shone forth among your peers more brightly than the sun; in deed you have fulfilled what it is to be a monk [monachos], having been set apart [made solitary] from all things, both from spiritual children and from kinsmen and from friends and from your homeland and from anything else whatsoever, for the truth's sake. Let me say something even more frankly (for I have the boldness that comes from you): you have fulfilled your promises. I am defeated with the good defeat, and I rejoice exceedingly at being conquered, making your crown my own; for such are the bonds of affection that are according to God. You know what I mean, at the time when I was reproaching you concerning the collapse that occurred then, even if it was not reckoned so, while your Reverence was seeking the more perfect things. You have me, O dear friend. But just as I show myself well-disposed here, so do you also there, I beseech you, be in agreement. What is this? That then too the imprisonment was for the truth's sake. And I would not say this on my own behalf (far from it), but in order that God may strengthen you, through that confession, in this one also, so that you may contend lawfully. These things have been said by me out of surpassing love; since to another I would not have had the boldness to speak, although indeed I pray that all may be so minded from the crown of the head to the feet. For our affairs are now beyond suspicions and crookedness, even if otherwise we are in sins. And make known to us, O father, you yourself also, in what condition you are and how you are settled, neither losing heart nor despairing of the mercies of the Lord; for if He should say, "Be silent, be muzzled" [cf. Mark 4:39], the destruction is stilled. But pray for me also without ceasing, I beseech you, that I may be delivered from the evil one.