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the glory of the saints. These things, as coming from the most blessed apostolic one by divine judgment; but who other than you, the good helper and right-hand counselor, who is apostolic in all things, would agree and cooperate and be zealous together for the completion of the things sought by God, as you also showed in the past in past matters things pleasing to God, being zealous for the Lord as a champion of truth and a protector, after the apostolic summit, of the church of Christ? I beseech your holy soul to make remembrance of me, who am a sinner in all things, that I may be saved in every way. 274 {1To John, bishop of Monemvasia, and to Methodius, abbot}1 To my God-honored and spiritual fathers, John, the most God-beloved bishop of Monemvasia, and Methodius, the most devout abbot, Theodore, a sinful monk and abbot of the Stoudios. Your harmonious holiness has taken good counsel, having departed from the heretical soul-destroying wave here and having sailed straight for the fair harbor of the first-enthroned of all the churches, not so much securing your own safety as considering the common good according to God's will, which is a matter for the highest praise; for this was made clear both by your sacred letter and indeed by the tongue of our beloved sons who have returned. But blessed be God, who both inspired the thought and suggested the way and graciously granted you a successful reception there, even if one ran ahead of the other as at the God-receiving tomb; for both are gospels of joy, through which the efforts of the heretical guard came to nothing and our humble supplication has more easily entered the ears of the apostolic one, and from both were fashioned the things decided by the finger of God in the apostolic heart. How venerable your voyage, how glorious your struggle, having achieved a more precious accomplishment than those contending here, if indeed the salvation of all has been brought about by two men. Not a crown of wild olive †of confession but a hymnic one from a God-woven rose garden for the tracker of the Forerunner, and one might say his namesake, and for the truly Methodius, if indeed your action is a beneficial method of virtues for the church of Christ. What then remains, you who are wise know, even if we are silent; may God who began a good and so great a saving work in you for his own church bring it to completion. Therefore we remind and exhort you, which we are not unaware that you are certainly doing, do not let up in applying pressure and beseeching until the things divinely approved by the holy first throne are brought to pass; for to this very end we have sent Euphemianus, our beloved son, that he might also become an accurate messenger of all that is being done here. Deign to greet all the like-minded and holy ones, especially my most revered archimandrite; since we too, concerning you, if we are able anywhere, will be eager to announce the good news and to offer fitting greetings. 275 {1To the Pope of Alexandria}1 To the all-holy father of fathers, luminary of luminaries, my lord and master, the most blessed pope of Alexandria, Theodore, least presbyter and abbot of the Stoudios. What a very great gift to my lowliness and a work of the highest prayer to be deemed worthy through a letter to enter into conversation with your apostolic summit, not only because of the worthlessness of my smallness, which is inadequate even for writing to equals, let alone to so great and divine a head, but also because of the passage at so great a distance, hindered as it is especially by the walling-off of the heathens. Nevertheless, by the good pleasure of the all-good God it has become possible for me for two reasons, one, that I, a sinner, might fulfill the desire I have long had through a spiritual touching of your holy footsteps (for in no other way was it possible for my heart's desire to be fulfilled), and the other, which was even more pressing, to make more widely known to your most divine summit the terrible things that have come upon us here, as you suffer together with the members of the whole body of the church; which have been heard of, as I suppose,

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τῶν ἁγίων κλέος. Ταῦτα μὲν ὡς παρὰ τοῦ μακαριωτάτου ἀποστολικοῦ θεοκρίτως προερχόμενα· τίς δ' ἂν εἴη πλὴν σοῦ τοῦ καλοῦ παραστάτου καὶ συμβούλου δεξιοῦ καὶ κατὰ πάντα ἀποστολίζοντος συνθέσθαι καὶ συμπρᾶξαι καὶ συμπροθυμήσασθαι εἰς τελείωσιν τῶν θεοζητήτων, ὡς καὶ τὰ πάλαι ἐπὶ τοῖς πάλαι ἐνεδείξω θεάρεστα, ζηλῶν τῷ Κυρίῳ ὡς ὑπέρμαχος ἀληθείας καὶ προστάτης μετὰ τὴν ἀποστολικὴν κορυφὴν τῆς Χριστοῦ ἐκκλησίας; ∆έομαί σου τῆς ἁγίας ψυχῆς ποιεῖσθαί μου μνήμην τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἁμαρτωλοῦ εἰς τὸ σῴζεσθαι ἐν παντὶ τρόπῳ. 274 {1Ἰωάννῃ ἐπισκόπῳ Μονοβασίας καὶ Μεθοδίῳ ἡγουμένῳ}1 Τοῖς θεοτιμήτοις καὶ πνευματικοῖς μου πατράσι Ἰωάννῃ τῷ θεοφι-λεστάτῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Μονοβασίας καὶ Μεθοδίῳ τῷ εὐλαβεστάτῳ ἡγουμένῳ Θεόδωρος ἁμαρτωλὸς μοναχὸς καὶ ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίου. Καλὴν βουλὴν ἐβουλεύσατο ἡ ἐμμελὴς ὑμῶν ἁγιωσύνη, ἀπάρασα τοῦ τῇδε αἱρετικοῦ ψυχοφθόρου κλύδωνος καὶ πρὸς τὸν εὔδιον λιμένα τῆς πασῶν ἐκκλησιῶν πρωτοβαθρούσης εὐθυδρομήσασα, οὐ μᾶλλον τὸ καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἀσφαλισαμένη ἢ τὸ κοινῇ συμφέρον σκοπήσασα θεοβούλως, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τῆς ἀνωτάτω εὐφημίας· τοῦτο γὰρ ἐδήλωσεν ἥ τε ἱερὰ ὑμῶν συλλαβὴ καὶ μὴν καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα τῶν παλινοδησάντων ἀγαπητῶν ἡμῶν υἱῶν. Ἀλλ' εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεός, ὁ καὶ τὸν λογισμὸν ἐνσκήψας καὶ τὸν τρόπον ὑποθέμενος καὶ εὐμενῶς ὑμᾶς προσδεχθῆναι ἐν τοῖς αὐτόθι εὐοδώσας, εἰ καὶ θάτερος θατέρου προέδραμεν ὡς ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοδόχου μνήματος· καὶ γὰρ χαρᾶς εὐαγγέλια ἄμφω, δι' ὧν οἵ τε τῆς αἱρετικῆς κουστωδίας ἠπράκτησαν ἥ τε ἡμετέρα δέησις τῶν ταπεινῶν εὐμαρεστέρως εἰς τὰ ὦτα τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ εἰσελήλυθεν καὶ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἐτυπώθη τὰ δακτύλῳ θεοῦ ἐν τῇ ἀποστολικῇ καρδίᾳ βεβουλευμένα. ὡς γεραρὸς ὑμῶν ὁ πλοῦς, ὡς εὐκλεὴς ὁ ἀγών, τῶν ἐνταῦθα ἐναθλούντων τιμαλφέστερον τὸ κατόρθωμα ἐργασάμενος, εἴπερ δυοῖν ἀνδροῖν ἡ πάντων σωτηρία κατέπρακται. οὐ κότινος ὑμῖν †ἐξολογικὸς ἀλλ' ὑμνικὸς ἐκ ῥοδωνίας θεοπλόκου στέφανος τῷ ἰχνηλάτῃ τοῦ Προδρόμου, εἴη δὲ εἰπεῖν καὶ συνωνύμῳ, καὶ τῷ ὡς ἀληθῶς Μεθοδίῳ, εἴπερ μέθοδος ἀρετῶν ὠφέλιμος τῇ Χριστοῦ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἡ σὴ πρᾶξις. Τί οὖν τὸ λειπόμενον, ἴστε οἱ σοφοί, κἂν ἡμεῖς σιγῶμεν· ὁ ἐναρξάμενος ἐν ὑμῖν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν καὶ τηλικοῦτον σωτήριον τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἐκκλησίᾳ θεὸς τελειώσειεν. διὸ ὑπομνήσκομεν καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν, ὃ πάντως ποιεῖν ὑμᾶς οὐκ ἀγνοοῦμεν, μὴ ὑφεῖτε προσκείμενοι καὶ ἐκλιπαροῦντες ἕως ἂν περαιωθῇ τὰ θεοειδῶς ἐγκεκριμένα τῷ ἁγίῳ πρωτοθρόνῳ· εἰς αὐτὸ γὰρ τοῦτο ἀπεστείλαμεν Εὐφημιανόν, τὸν ἀγαπητὸν ἡμῶν υἱόν, πρὸς τὸ καὶ ἄγγελον γενέσθαι ἀκριβῆ πάντων τῶν ἐνταῦθα πραττομένων. προσειπεῖν ἅπαντας τοὺς ὁμοζήλους καὶ ἁγίους, μάλιστα τὸν σεβασμιώτατόν μου ἀρχιμανδρίτην, ἀξιώσατε· ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς περὶ ὑμῶν, εἴ που δυνηθείημεν, εὐαγγελίσασθαι τὰ ἀγαθὰ καὶ προσαγορεῦσαι τὰ εἰκότα σπουδάσομεν. 275 {1Πάπᾳ Ἀλεξανδρείασ}1 Τῷ τὰ πάντα ἁγιωτάτῳ πατρὶ πατέρων, φωστῆρι φωστήρων, κυρίῳ μου δεσπότῃ μακαριωτάτῳ πάπᾳ Ἀλεξανδρείας, Θεόδωρος ἐλάχιστος πρεσβύτερος καὶ ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίου. Ὡς μέγιστον τῇ ἐμῇ ταπεινώσει δῶρον καὶ εὐχῆς τῆς ἀνωτάτω ἔργον διὰ γράμματος ἀξιωθῆναι εἰς ὁμιλίαν ἐλθεῖν τῆς ἀποστολικῆς σου κορυφῆς, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὸ εὐτελὲς τῆς σμικρότητός μου, ἧς καὶ τὸ πρὸς ἴσους γράφειν ἐνδεές, μὴ ὅτι γε πρὸς οὕτω μεγάλην καὶ θείαν κεφαλήν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ διὰ τὴν ἐν τοσούτῳ μακρυσμῷ πάροδον, τῇ ἐθνικῇ ὅτι μάλιστα εἰργομένην διατειχίσει. ὅμως εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ ὑπεραγάθου θεοῦ ἐξεγένετό μοι δυοῖν εἵνεκα, ἑνὸς μέν, ὡς ἂν ἣν πάλαι εἶχον ἐπιθυμίαν ὁ ἁμαρτωλὸς ἀποπληρώσω διὰ νοερᾶς προσψαύσεως τῶν ἱερῶν σου ἰχνῶν (οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄλλως ἦν δυνατὸν τὸ καταθύμιον πληρωθῆναι), ἑτέρου δέ, ὃ καὶ μᾶλλον κατεπεῖγον, πρὸς τὸ γνωριμώτερα παραστῆσαι τὰ ἐπελθόντα δεινὰ ἐνταῦθα τῇ θειοτάτῃ σου κορυφῇ ὡς συμπασχούσῃ τοῖς τοῦ ὅλου σώματος τῆς ἐκκλησίας μέλεσιν· ἃ ἐξήκουσται, ὡς οἶμαι,