Saint Crescent

From Saint Paul's journey to Spain, it is easy to conclude that he passed into France. All the Fathers of the first centuries who had occasion to speak of this journey agree on it: such are, among the Greeks, Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, and Saint John Chrysostom, and, among the Latins, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory the Great, and Saint Isidore of Seville, whose words may be seen reported by interpreters on chapter XV of the Epistle to the Romans; and, regarding the mission of Saint Crescent in the Gauls, we have the testimony of Saint Dorotheus, Saint Jerome, and Eusebius of Caesarea, one of the oldest and most famous historians of the Church, in book IV of his History, chapter 4, according to the true Greek text and the version of Valois. Saint Epiphanius, who, in Heresy 51, speaking of Saint Luke, says that he preached in Dalmatia, in Italy, in Macedonia, but especially in the Gauls, also asserts that Saint Paul sent some of his disciples there, among others Saint Crescent. Theodoret adds that when this Apostle says he sent Saint Crescent to Galatia, by this word Galatia he means the Gauls, which were formerly called by that name. Finally, without speaking of Sophronius in the book of Ecclesiastical Historians and the Chronicle of Alexandria, which teach the same thing, Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, who must have been perfectly inform Adon, archevêque de Vienne Author of a famous martyrology in the 9th century. ed of the ancient tradition of his Church, says in express terms, in his martyrology, that Saint Crescent, a disciple of Saint Paul, having come to the Gauls, converted many infidels there to the faith of Jesus Christ, that he held his episcopal see in Vienne for some years, and that having ordained Saint Zacharias in his place, he returned to the land of the Galatians (the Eastern Gauls, just as the Gauls were the Western Galatians), and spent the rest of his life strengthening them in the faith and the Christian religion.

This apostolic man was one of the assistants of the apostle Saint Paul; he worked for a long time with him on the conversion of the infidels and suffered like him the fatigue of travels, poverty, nakedness, cold, heat, contradictions, persecutions, and all the evils that were inseparable from the preaching of the Gospel; after having been his disciple, he was judged worthy to be a master and to work by himself on this great task. The Apostle therefore made him bishop of Galatia, a province of Asia Minor, whose capital is Ancyra and which is also called Gallo-Greece, because it was inhabited by colonies of Gauls and Greeks; but, as the small number of evangelical workers there were at that time obliged the bishops of the principal sees, after having established good order in their churches, to carry the light of the faith into more distant countries, Saint Paul did not hesitate to draw Saint Crescent from Galatia to have him preach in other places, and above all he sent him into our Gauls, which were without contradiction the most beautiful government of the empire. This holy Missionary made great progress there in a short time, and, having mainly stopped at Vienne, in Dauphiné, a very considerable city, which gave senators to Rome and had itself an illustrious senate, he converted enough infidels there to establish his episcopal see, which the Roman Church has always held in high regard. Pope Paul II, writing to Charlema gne, tells him Le pape Paul II Pope who wrote to Charlemagne regarding the Church of Vienne. that this Chu rch had as Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. its founder and master Saint Crescent, colleague of the Apostles.

After having fulfilled his mission with great success, he appointed Saint Zacharias as bishop in his place, as we have already reported from Ado, one of his successors, and, if one is to believe the tradition of the diocese of Mainz, Mayence Site of the assassination of Emperor Alexander Severus. came to preach in the vicinity of that city. Serrarius, in his History, presents as authentic the founding of the Church of Mainz and Cologne: he relies on the testimony of Saint Rupert, who asserts that Saint Crescent preached in these two cities. He produces very ancient manuscript catalogues, which confirm this tradition; he cites the authority of Ado, of Bede, of Usuard, and of several other writers. In the Life of Saint Maximus, bishop of Mainz, it is said that "the body of this holy Pontiff was buried in the church of Saint-Hilaire, near the tomb of Saint Crescent, first bishop of this city, and that it remained there for five hundred and fifty-seven years, until the time of Hildebert, in the year 935 of Jesus Christ, the epoch at which its solemn translation was made" into the church of Saint Alban, martyr. From which one must conclude that in the year 400 of Jesus Christ, the inhabitants of Mainz were generally persuaded of the truth of this tradition, since they possessed his body and his tomb.

Saint Crescent, in his evangelical travels, performed extraordinary miracles. The martyrologies attest that he was martyred under the empire of Trajan; but t Trajan Roman emperor mentioned for his rescript to Pliny the Younger. hey do not state in what place he suffered for the faith. The Church of Mainz, which claims to be in possession of his relics, affirms at the same time that this holy Martyr was put to death by the pagans in that city. A church remarkable for its beauty has been erected there in his honor.

However, this does not prevent one from believing that this zealous Apostle, as some traditions report, returned, at least for some time, from the places of his western mission to Gallo-Greece or Galatia, located in Asia Minor, and that he again governed as bishop that eastern Church, which he had founded in part with Saint Paul. This is why the Greeks say that he was, for a time, bishop of Chalcedon or Chalcis, or Chalcide.

He is mentioned twice in the Roman Martyrology, both times as a disciple of Saint Paul and as the first bishop of Vienne; namely: on this day, June 27, and on December 29. Other martyrologies also speak of him and all attribute to him this quality of disciple of the Apostle, which further confirms what we have said about his mission. Du Saussay speaks of him at length, not only in his martyrology, but also in his treatise on the Seventy-two Disciples, and in Book I of the Mystical Writers of Gaul.

The people of Mainz have sometimes represented him carrying a church in his hand, to signify that he was the founder of their episcopal see.

Acta Sanctorum. — Cf. History of the Seventy-two Disciples, by Abbé Maistre.