Letter 93: Theodore Studite, Letter 93; Greek heading: Κηροπράτῃ.

In these days a greeting and a bare word of address to those exiled for Christ's sake is a great token of friendship and piety; and the sending of gifts as well is a sign of very great longing and of divine zeal indeed. Such has my beloved master been toward my lowliness, and your missives are sweet, kindlings of light, such tokens of the purity of your soul and of the far-shining orthodoxy of your mind. For now, as you see, the affairs of the Church are in night and tempest, a tempest that drowns not bodies, for that is not yet the dreadful thing, so much as it drowns souls, the immortal ones, that are shipwrecked. And, O the dreadful calamity, with no beacon-fire appearing nor any harbor in those parts! Guard yourself, therefore, beloved, steering an orthodox course, unsubmerged by the heretical surges [the iconoclast heresy], stretching your eye up to heaven, from which also we await as Savior the Lord of glory, whom they dare to dishonor through the dishonoring of His holy icon [eikon, the sacred image], those who do the same as the Jews. This is our small address, in return of love to your beloved honored self, together with our sinful prayer, since we have no other gift to give in exchange.