Crescens ( Greek: Κρίσκης) was an individual who appears in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. He is traditionally considered one of the 72 disciples sent out by Jesus in Luke 10. He was a missionary in Galatia and became a companion of Paul. The name 'Crescens' is the present-active participle of the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word ''crescere'', and means 'increasing'.

Biblical narrative

Crescens, a companion of Paul during his second Roman captivity, appears once in the New Testament, where he is mentioned as having left the Apostle to go into Galatia: "Make haste to come to me quickly", Paul writes to Timothy, "for Demas hath left me, loving this world, and is gone to Thessalonica, Crescens into Galatia, Titus into Dalmatia" (). All commentators agree in ranking Crescens with Titus rather than with Demas, and in seeing here, therefore, a reference to a missionary journey into Galatia. This term, in New Testament times, might mean either

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

or the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

of Galatia in

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, where Paul had labored so much; and its use here has been interpreted in both senses. In the other passages where it occurs in the New Testament, however, it denotes Galatia, and most probably it would be so understood here by Timothy, especially as the other regions mentioned are likewise to the east of Rome. Moreover, Paul might easily have a reason for sending a disciple to visit his old Churches in Galatia, while Fenlon notes that there is no proof that he had an active interest in Gaul.Fenlon, John Francis, "Crescens", The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 1 August 2018

Early church tradition

Accordingly, the earliest tradition ('' Apostolic Constitutions'', VII, 46) represents Crescens as a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the Churches in Galatia, martyred there during the reign of Trajan.Watkins, Basil. ''The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, p. 158
Later traditions, on the other hand, locate him as Bishop of Vienne in Gaul, also at

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

on the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. But the earliest known traditions of Gaul itself record nothing of this disciple of the Apostle as a founder of their Churches, and the belief is thought to have arisen later from the desire of an Apostolic origin. The claims of Vienne have been most strongly urged; but they are based upon the mistaken identification of its first bishop, Crescens, who lived in the third century, with the disciple of Paul. As little can be said for Mainz. The reading of certain manuscripts ( Sinaiticus, Ephræmi), which have "Gallia" instead of "Galatia", has also been advanced in favour of Gaul; but the traditional reading is supported by the great mass of manuscript evidence. Crescens is mentioned as one of the Seventy Apostles of Christ by Pseudo-Dorotheus. His martyrdom in Galatia, under

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

, commemorated on 27 June by the

Roman Martyrology The ''Roman Martyrology'' () is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved appendices to it. It provid ...

, lacks the confirmation of older Martyrologies.

Veneration

The

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

honours him on 30 July, as one of the Seventy.

Notes

References

* * Car Démas m'a abandonné par amour du monde présent. Il est parti pour Thessalonique, Crescens pour la Galatie, Tite pour la Dalmatie. * Recherche sur les églises de Reims, de Soissons et de Chalons - L.W Ravenez - 1857. {{Authority control Seventy disciples People in the Pauline epistles 1st-century Christian saints Saints from Roman Anatolia 1st-century bishops in Roman Anatolia