Jean-Baptiste CRETIN (1813-1893)

He was baptized by Louis Caulier in Nomain (North) in 1829. He married April 19, 1843 the fatherless Aurore Lemaire.
He baptized his mother in law, his sister in law and his wife three days afterwards. He had five daughters, Lydie (born May 20, 1844), Eunice (born in August 1845), Evodie (born in 1848), Nérée (March 1853), and Jeanne (June 23, 1856). A pastor and tremendously effective evangelist, he planted the Churches of Lyon, Saint-Etienne, La Fère, Chauny, Verberie, Denain, Montbéliard.
A talented polemist, and a defender of the strict Baptist movement introduced by the first American missionaries, he was the main actor in the development of the Baptist movement during the 19th century.
He was the long-term president of the French Baptist Committee.