Crescens (Hastings' Dictionary)

A companion of St. Paul in his final imprisonment, sent by him to (jalatia (2 Ti 4'), i.e. either to Asiatic Galatia, — a view sup- ported by 8t. Paul's usage elsewhere, and by the context, in which all the otiier places mentioned lie east of Kome (so Const. Apast. vii. 40 ; Tille- niont, Memoires stir St. Paul, Note 81 ; Smith, Dli- S.V.); or possibly to Gaul (so n C, reading raXX/ov; Kuseb. Ht! iii. 4; Kpiph. H(jer. 51. 11; Theodore and Theodoret ad 2 'I'i 4"' ; IJghtfoot, Gal. pp.

-i and oO). A late Western tradition treats him as the founder of the Churches of Vienne and of .Mayence ((iams. Series Episc). Ills memory is honoured in the Roman martyrology on .Tune 27, in the Greek .Menologion on May 30, and there he is treated as one of the .seventy disciples, and a bishop of Chalcedon. [Acta tSaneturuyn, June 27 ; Menolo(iion, May 30.1 The name is Latin, and is found among the freedmen of Nero (Tac. Hist. i. 76), the centurions (Ann. xv.

11), and the priests of Phoebus (Inscr. Grcecce, Sic. et Ital. 102(1). W. Lock.