Letter 84: Theodore Studite, Letter 84; Greek heading: Γρηγορᾷ λαϊκῷ.

Your great and fervent service and your attendance upon the brethren who are in the prisons have made you, O man of God, an exile, a fugitive, a wanderer. But take courage: you shall lodge under the shelter of the God of heaven, and the Jerusalem above shall be your dwelling place. In very truth you have contended, you have suffered hardship, you have been spent, you have been beaten with fists, you have been hunted out, and indeed you have even been overpowered, though not utterly; your reward is great, equal to that of those held in custody, since it is even greater. You are our brother, one in soul with us, a sharer with us, if indeed we too have any good thing, even in bodily matters, in the same way. May God save you; pray for us. And from now on as well, even from afar, so far as you are able, give aid to those imprisoned for God's sake, whoever they may be, men and women alike; for all are brothers in Christ.