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Gregory Thaumaturgus
Gregory Thaumaturgus
213 CE–270 CE · Neocaesarea
Gregory Thaumaturgus ("the Wonderworker," c. 213–270 CE) was a bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus and one of Origen's most celebrated students. Born Theodore into a pagan family in Neocaesarea, he traveled to Caesarea Maritima in Palestine to study under Origen for roughly five years, producing a renowned Panegyric in Origen's honor upon departure. Returning to Pontus as bishop around 238–240 CE, he is credited with the dramatic Christianization of the region; later hagiographic tradition claims he found only seventeen Christians on arrival and left only seventeen pagans at his death — a figure not attested in early sources and best read as a rhetorical emblem of his missionary achievement.
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Stop 1 of 5213–233Birthplace, Early Life
NeocaesareaTurkey
What they did here
Born here (as Theodore) into a prominent pagan family around 213 CE; received a classical education before departing with his brother Athenodorus, intending first to study Roman law at Berytus (Beirut) before being diverted to Origen at Caesarea.
About Neocaesarea
Neocaesarea (modern Niksar, northern Turkey), the metropolis of Pontus. Gregory Thaumaturgus ('the Wonderworker') was its bishop in the 3rd century and is credited with converting the region; it hosted an early Council of Neocaesarea.
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Gregory Thaumaturgus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.