Rabbi Chiya, also called Rabbi Chiya the Great (Rabbi Chiya Rabbah), was born in Babylonia and came to the Land of Israel, where he became a leading student and colleague of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah.
The Talmud (Sukkah 20a) says that when the Torah was forgotten in Israel, Rabbi Chiya and his sons came and restored it. It also tells (Ketubot 103b) how he planted flax, made nets, caught deer, fed their meat to orphans and wrote scrolls on their hides, then went from town to town teaching children, so that Torah would never be forgotten. He is buried in Tiberias, together with his sons Yehuda and Chizkiya.
