[MR] Saint Kentigern

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots:

Today I have nothing upon which to comment from the news. So I decided to
write a brief page on Saint Kentigern, one of Scotland's most important
early saints.

Kentigern is also known by his familiar name, Mungo (which means "beloved
friend" in Welsh, his native language). For those of you who are thinking
'big ego on my part", I actually chose Mungo as my SCA name before ever
learning about the saint. The name came from a distant ancestor, Mungo
Napier, a burgess of Dumbarton, who moved to London in 1603 possibly as a
courtier to James I & VI. To later discover Saint Mungo was a delightful
bonus. As I learned about Saint Kentigern / Mungo he became my favorite
Catholic saint.

Saint Mungo lived from 518 to 614 CE, and was thus a contemporary of Saint
Columba (who usually gets most of the credit for evangelizing Scotland) and
Saint Ninian. Setting aside his rather dodgy hagiography, around 543
Kentgern settled in the Welsh-speaking kingdom of Strathclyde where he
ministered to a remnant Christian population left over from Roman times.
Saint Mungo is said to have met and been on good terms with Saint Columba,
exchanging pastoral staves at their meeting. Eventually Saint Mungo was
forced to flee due to anti-Christian prejudice from Strathclyde's king. He
spent time in Wales and may have undertaken a pilgrimage to Rome. He was
recalled to Strathclyde by a successor king where Mungo continued his
ministry at what would later become Glasgow. His death date is disputed,
but may have been as late as 614. Saint Kentigern was buried in his
Calthedral.

During the later middle ages a strong Kentigern cult grew at Glasgow
Cathedral. When Jocelin, Abbot of Melrose, was elected Bishop of Glasgow in
1174, he commissioned a *Life* for Saint Kentigern, filled with a whole
bunch of  . . . uh . . . questionable miracles. Jocelin completely rebuilt
the Cathedral, and began promoting Saint Kentigern's shrine as a pilgrimage
destination. By the mid-1400s, Kentigern's pilgrimage was almost as popular
as pilgrimage to St. Andrews. Saint Kentigern was also declared Glasgow's
patron saint.

Pilgrimage ended with the Scottish reformation, circa 1560 (not quite, I
went there on a mild sort of pilgrimage in 2017). The Glasgow Cathedral was
stripped of most of its "papist" decorations. Saint Kentigern's shrine was
destroyed, though the saint's tomb in the undercroft survived intact.
Further damage to the cathedral was prevented by a force of guildsmen who
defended "their" church from the wreckers. Glasgow, despite going
Protestant, Glasgow seems to have still loved THEIR saint.

Today St. Mungo's Cathedral houses an active congregation from the Kirk of
Scotland (Protestant and Presbyterian). The structure itself is owned by
Historic Environment Scotland. It is one of two Scottish cathedrals to have
survived the reformation largely intact (the other is St. Magnus Cathedral
in Kirkwall, Orkney).

A biography of Saint Kentigern / Mungo, including a few of his tomb, is
found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Mungo .

More on the cathedral itself can be found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Cathedral .

Today Kentigern / Mungo remains the patron saint of Glasgow. His likeness
can be seen carved in stone on a number of buildings around the city. His
likeness and symbols of his four chief miracles adorn the city's arms:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow#/media/File:Glasgow_Coat_of_Arms.png .

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆