Working in the Waters

Οἱ καταβαίνοντες εἰς θάλασσαν ἐν πλοίοις, ποιοῦντες ἐργασίαν ἐν ὕδασι πολλοῖς, οἱ τοῦ Κυρίου τυγχάνουσι θεοφόροι ἀποστολοι, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ προτέρου τοῦτο ὄντες ἐπιτηδεύματος, καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἐν τῷ βιῷ ζωγρευτικῆς ἐργασίας. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὡς κυμάτων ἐπανάστασις φλεγμαίνει καὶ κατευνάζεται τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰ πράγματα, εἰκότως θάλασσαν τὴν τούτων ἀνωμαλίαν οἱ θεῖοι καλοῠσι χρησμοί. Οἱ δὲ ταύτην γαληνεύσαντες, ἐν ὕδασι πολλοῖς πεποιῆσθαι τὴν ἐργασίαν εῥῥήθησαν. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΡΠΓ', Ἡρακλειδῃ Ἐπισκοπῳ

Those who go down into the sea in ships, doing work in the many waters,1 are as the God bearing Apostles of the Lord, those who were the first found fit for this office, being taken up from their work in the world. For since the affairs of men are like the rolling waves' rising and falling, so the Divine oracle employs the unpredictable sea as an image. And those who would make this tranquil are said to have done in the many waters a work. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 183, to the Bishop Heracleides 1 Ps 106.23