Crescens
Crescens (Κρήσκης, for Latin Crescens, growing), an assistant of the apostle Paul (2Ti 4:10, where he is stated to have left Rome for Galatia), A.D. 64. He is generally supposed to have been one of the seventy disciples of Christ. It is alleged in the Apostolical Constitutions (7, 46), and by the fathers of the Church, that he preached the Gospel in Galatia, a fact probably deduced conjecturally from the only text (2Ti 4:10) in which his name occurs. There is a less ancient tradition (in Sophronius), according to which Crescens preached, went into Gaul (Galatia; see Theodoret on 2 Timothy 1, c.), and became the founder of the Church in Vienne; but it deserves no notice, having probably no other foundation than the resemblance of the names Galatia and Gallia. From the fact of his having a Latin name, many have inferred that he was a Christian of Rome. (See Bechler, De Crescente, Viteb. 1689.)
