Basil was born into a large and prosperous Christian family in Neocaesarea, some 150 miles northeast of Caesarea, in A.D. 330. His parents could trace their history back to the third century, and his grandmother had known disciples of the heroic “apostle” of the region, Gregory the Wonderworker. Legend has it that when Gregory became bishop of Neocaesarea there were only seventeen Christians, and when he died only seventeen people were still pagans.
