Letter 79: Procopius says the student was like his own child while present and now goes to them with his prayers.

Because I gladly see you when you are present and always remember you when you are absent, I did not think I should let the occasion pass in silence. It is always sweet to write to you, and neither you nor I would have approved if I sent our shared child on his way without letters. As long as he was with me, I seemed, because of my care for him, to have become his father by nature as well. Now that he is leaving me, I can only pray to hear others report that God has already made the young man what you wished him to be. May someone become a father of words to him: not more well-disposed than I am, but perhaps better.

Εὐσεβίωι καὶ Ἠλίαι Ἐγὼ καὶ παρόντας ὑμᾶς ἡδέως ὁρῶν καὶ ἀπόντων ἀεὶ μεμνημένος οὐκ ᾠήθην δεῖν σιγῇ τὸν καιρὸν παρελθεῖν· ἀεὶ μὲν γὰρ ὑμῖν ἐπιστέλλειν ἡδύ, τὸν δὲ κοινὸν παῖδα μὴ μετὰ γραμμάτων προπέμπειν οὔτ' ἂν ὑμεῖς ἐπῃνέσατε, κἀγὼ ποιεῖν ᾐσχυνόμην. ἕως μὲν οὖν μοι παρῆν, σπουδῆς αὐτῷ χάριν ἐδόκουν καὶ φύσει γεγονέναι πατήρ· νυνὶ δὲ τὴν ἐξ ἡμῶν ἰόντι μόνον εὔχεσθαι δύναμαι διηγουμένων ἄλλων ἀκούειν, ὡς οἷον ἐβούλου τὸν νέον θεὸς ἐπένευσεν ἤδη καὶ γέγονεν. ἀλλά τις γένοιτο τούτῳ λόγων πατήρ, εὔνους μὲν οὐκ ἂν μᾶλλον, κρείττων δὲ ἴσως.