This term, in New Testament times, might mean either Gaul or the Roman province of Galatia in Asia Minor, where Paul had labored so much; and its use here has been interpreted in both senses.

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.

[2] Accordingly, the earliest tradition (Apostolic Constitutions, VII, 46) represents Crescens as a bishop of the Churches in Galatia, martyred there during the reign of Trajan.

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.