But unfortunately they have all been lost except two - one to Julius Africanus (about the history of Susanna) and one to Gregory Thaumaturgus.
But the Christianization of the inland Pontic districts began only about the middle of the 3rd century and was largely due to the missionary zeal of Gregory Thaumaturgus, bishop of Neocaesarea.
The principal works of Gregory Thaumaturgus are the Panegyricus in Origenem (Eis 't ptybniv iravrnvpucos Xbyos), which he wrote when on the point of leaving the school of that great master (it contains a valuable minute description of Origen's mode of instruction), a Metaphrasis in Ecclesiasten, characterized by Jerome as " short but useful "; and an Epistola canonica, which treats of the discipline to be undergone by those Christians who under pressure of persecution had relapsed into paganism, but desired to be restored to the privileges of the Church.
There was in the whole family a tendency to ecstatic emotion and enthusiastic piety, and it is worth noting that Cappadocia had already given to the Church men like Firmilian and Gregory Thaumaturgus.
An earlier origin has been claimed for it on the ground that it is mentioned in sermons of Athanasius and of Gregory Thaumaturgus, but both of these documents are now admitted to be spurious.