Letter 369: Theodore Studite, Letter 369; Greek heading: Κωνσταντίνῳ λαϊκῷ.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you and upon all your house, in return for what you send to our lowliness [a self-abasing reference to himself], O man of God, lily of orthodoxy [right belief], ardent friend. If you acquire a friend, as the saying goes, acquire him in trial, since he is a sharer of affliction, a guardian of the faith, of whose beauty there is no measuring. Such are you, confirming the saying by what you do and say. But ease off, I beg you, do not press yourself down too hard. And if you will not relent, may the good God not press you down either, who does good to you invisibly; may he keep you yet unharmed, with all your household.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Εὐλογία Κυρίου ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα τὸν
οἶκόν σου ἀνθ' ὧν ἀποστέλλεις τῇ ταπεινώσει ἡμῶν, ἄνθρωπε τοῦ θεοῦ, κρίνον
ὀρθοδοξίας, φίλε διάπυρε. εἰ κτᾶσαι φίλον, ὥς φησιν ὁ λόγος, ἐν πειρασμῷ αὐτὸν
κτῆσαι, ἐπειδήπερ ἐστὶ κοινωνὸς θλίψεως, πίστεως φύλαξ, οὗπερ οὐκ ἔστι σταθμὸς
τῆς καλλονῆς. τοιοῦτος σύ, ἐξ ὧν ποιεῖς καὶ λέγεις πιστούμενος τὸν λόγον. ἀλλ'
ἄνες, παρακαλῶ, μὴ ὑποπιέζεις σεαυτόν. εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἀνέχῃ, μηδὲ σὲ ὁ ἀγαθὸς θεός,
ἀοράτως εὐεργετῶν· ὃς καὶ διαφυλάξειέν σε ἔτι ἀσινῆ πανοικί.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern theodore studite workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://greekdownloads3.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/epistulae2.pdf
Related Letters
Theodore Studite, Letter 114; Greek heading: Ἀθανασίῳ τέκνῳ.
Theodore Studite, Letter 81; Greek heading: Ἀνατολίῳ καὶ Σαββατίῳ τέκνοισ.
Theodore Studite, Letter 168; Greek heading: Λαυρεντίῳ τέκνῳ.
Theodore Studite, Letter 487; Greek heading: Στεφάνῳ ἡγουμένῳ.
Theodore Studite, Letter 544; Greek heading: Ἰωσὴφ καθηγουμένῳ τῶν Κεραμένων.