CRESCENS. - Disciple of St. Paul, mentioned in II Tim. 4:10. The Latin name Crescens (Tacitus, Hist., I, 76, the name of a freedman of Nero; Annal., XV, 11, of a centurion), Hellenized as Κρήχνης, suggests a person of Latin origin; but this cannot be established, given that the only information about him is that of the cited text of II Tim. From this we learn that C. was with Paul for a certain time during the second Roman imprisonment, then departed, certainly for a mission entrusted to him by the Apostle. In fact C. is paired with Titus, who went to Dalmatia, and clearly distinguished from Demas, who, "out of love for this present world," left Paul to go to Thessalonica.
It is debated whether the destination of C.'s journey was Galatia (v.) or Gaul: important codices (SC, various minuscules, the Amiatinus for the Vulgate) have Γαλλίαν in place of Γαλατίαν. Even retaining the commonly accepted reading, it remains that the terms Γαλατία and Γαλάται had, among Greek writers down to the 2nd century A.D., also the meaning of Gaul and Gauls. Add to this that the "Monument of Ancyra" brings Gaul (Γαλατία) close to Spain and Dalmatia, thus providing us with an interesting parallel to the text that speaks of C.'s mission. A late tradition makes C. one of the seventy-two disciples, founder of the church of Vienne in Gaul (cf. Chronicon Paschale: PG 92, 609); while the Constitut. apost., VII, 46 (PG 1, 1056) assign Galatia to him as his field of labor. The Greeks commemorate him on July 30, the Roman Martyrology on June 27.
Bibliography4 works
Teodorico da Castel San Pietro