Saint Mungo – his Life and Legend
This brief popular paper on Saint Mungo was presented at a meeting of the Edinburgh Sunday School Teachers’ Union in 1966. It makes no pretensions to being a scholarly work and readers can make what they wish of the various tales and legends recounted. The text has only been lightly revised.
Saint Kentigern or Mungo was one of Scotland’s foremost apostles of Christianity and whose life was one of exemplary piety and sincerity. How he came to be a follower of the great Celtic Christian tradition is one of the most remarkable coincidences in the history of Scotland.
The monastic hagiographer, Jocelin of Furness, wrote a “Life” of Saint Mungo around the year 1185. Jocelin states that he rewrote the Life from an earlier Glasgow legend and an old Gaelic document. There are certainly two other known medieval lives: (1) an earlier partial Life now in the British Library and (2) the later Life, based on Jocelin, by John of Tynemouth.
Mungo’s mother was called Thenew. She was the Christian daughter of Loth who held sway over a kingdom in Southern Caledonia during the earlier part of the sixth century AD. The story runs that Thenew became pregnant through a relationship with her cousin Eugenius. Partly through fear of disgrace but mainly to satisfy his own pride, Loth decided to have his daughter executed. She was taken up to the top of Traprain Law and hurled over the precipice in a two wheeled cart. According to legend, she landed at the foot of the cliff entirely unharmed.
Her father, however, was determined not to be thwarted by a mere slip of a girl, so he then had her placed in a coracle and pushed into the River Forth at Aberlady. The little craft drifted out into the water, allegedly followed by hundreds of fish. Next morning, Thenew found that the tide had taken her up river and grounded the coracle on the north bank of the Forth at Culross, in Fife.
Thenew struggled on to dry land and on the foreshore her son was born. The traditional place for this event was marked by a sixteenth century chapel, built by Bishop Blackadder of Glasgow. The remains of the chapel can still be seen.
Thenew had been singularly fortunate in landing at Culross, as this was the home of (Saint) Serf, known as the Apostle of the Ochils, who also had oversight of a monastic school or college there. Serf came upon the two refugees on the foreshore. The kindly man said “Maghaol! Blessed are you who come in the name of the Lord.” “Maghaol” has, in the course of time, become Mungo, which means “darling”. This was to become his popular name throughout his life, in spite of his being baptised with the more formal name of Kentigern.
Mother and son were given refuge at Culross and Mungo was educated and trained under Serf, whose favourite pupil we was destined to be.
And thare he browcht up Saynt Mungowe
That syne was Byschape of Glasgowe [1]
Unfortunately, the fact that Mungo was clearly the favourite scholar, led to topical school-type bullying by the other boys, who set out to make his life a misery.
There is an account that, on one occasion, the other lads extinguished every fire in Culross knowing full well that it was Mungo’s turn to light the lamps in the church on the following morning. When Mungo discovered his predicament he pulled a twig from a nearby hazel tree and immediately it sprang into flames, but was not consumed. On another occasion the lads were playing with their master’s pet robin. In the course of the game, the unfortunate bird was killed. Mungo made the sign of the cross and the bird came back to life. We will return to these two miracles later.
In spite of the kindness of the venerable Serf, Mungo still found life at Culross unbearable and decided to run away. Serf, realising what had happened set off in pursuit and caught up with the young man at an unknown location named Pons Servani (Serf’s Bridge). He entreated Mungo to come home with him, but to no avail. After giving Mungo his blessing, Serf returned to Culross.
Mungo continued on his way; the story runs that the waters of the Forth parted to let him cross just like the waters of the Red Sea had parted for Moses. (It is interesting to note in passing that, around Culross, the River Forth is well known for unusual tides.) Later that day, Mungo arrived at a place called Kernach where we found Fergus, an aged apostle, on his deathbed. Fergus begged Mungo to arrange for him to have a proper Christian burial.
By the next morning, Fegus was dead. Mungo placed his body on a cart and compelled two bullocks to draw it, praying that the Lord would lead them to a chosen place. The bullocks drew the cart as far as a place then named Cathures and which Mungo renamed as Glasgow (Dear Green Place). He laid the old man to rest in a burial ground founded originally by Saint Ninian, the father of the Celtic Church in Scotland.
This was to mark the beginning of Mungo’s ministry in that part of what we now call Scotland. After a short time, he was created Bishop of Glasgow. It should be explained at this point that a bishop in the Celtic Church had a different role from a bishop in the modern sense. It was more of an honorary title that was conferred by another bishop in a simple ordination service. It was a position of veneration and respect, rather than political or ecclesiastical authority.
Saint Brigid, one of the patron saints of Ireland, is said to have been created a bishop by accident, as the officiating clergyman is said to have read the wrong service!
From the revived centre at Glasgow, Mungo and his disciples evangelised much of the south of Scotland. After a comparatively short time an unfortunate situation arose. Mungo was forced to flee the country because of opposition from a local ruler named Morken.
There was a great shortage of food in the area. Morken had barns filled with grain yet would not share any of this with his people. The story goes that Mungo commanded the Clyde to sweep away the grain. This is apparently what happened and the grain was miraculously washed ashore, dry, at Mungo’s chapel. This enraged Morken, although he died shortly afterwards. His kinsmen took the opportunity to blame Mungo for his death and he was forced to leave the Clyde valley.
We are not reliably informed what happened to Thenew, his mother. It is believed that she followed her son to Glasgow and that she subsequently died there. It is also believed that there was an early chapel at the point when the Molendinar Burn joins the River Clyde. This primitive building eventually took the name “Saint Enoch’s” – a corruption of her name. This latter name is still familiar to modern Glaswegians in the St Enoch Centre, built on the site of the former St Enoch Station and Hotel.
When Mungo was forced to leave Glasgow, he made south towards what is now the north of England. In Cumberland, there are no fewer than eight sites bearing his name plus one dedicated to Thenew, his mother. Similar sites are found in Northumberland. He made his way even further south through England. Saint Mungo's Well was a cold water spring and bath at Copgrove, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, formerly believed effective for treating rickets.
We tend to think that transport would have been very difficult, if not impossible. In fact, some parts of the country had been opened up with the Roman roads. Assuming – and this is a reasonable presumption – that Mungo stopped at Carlisle (Luguvallum), the whole of the north west of England would have opened to him. Even with a detour through the northern counties, it would still have been a simple matter to proceed south, on the road to Wales, by way of Chester (Deva).
Once in Wales, Mungo studied for some time under (Saint) David in the south which provided an excellent supplement to the grounding he had received in Culross. Eventually, he moved to the north of Wales guided, according to legend, by a white boar and began new outreach. He even named one of the rivers “Clwyd” after his own beloved Clyde.
His ministry in north Wales was very fruitful. Many gifts were poured on his monastic settlement. He founded a church at Llanlwy that later became known as Saint Asaph’s Cathedral. He also restored the sight of a local chieftain, who quickly befriended and protected him.
There is no reliable evidence as to how long Mungo actually stayed in Wales. However, at some point in time, the political situation in Glasgow seems to have improved sufficiently to allow him to return home. It is said that when he arrived back in Glasgow, he was accompanied by no less than 665 monks. With renewed zeal, he and his followers began to restore his work in the south of Scotland, taking in what are now Ayrshire, Roxburgh, Berwickshire and the Lothians.
Mungo himself soon set off on another expedition. First of all he followed in the steps of his venerable master, Saint Serf. He followed his tracks round the foothills of the Ochil Hills and made his way up Glendevon. On the other side of the Ochils, he stopped for some time at Gleneagles where there was a primitive chapel dedicated to his name. Saint Mungo’s Well is still the main source of the River Ruthven. From here, Mungo seemed to have travelled north as far as Aberdeenshire.
In Aberdeenshire, several wells and chapels bore his name. He also followed in the ministrations of (Saint) Drostan of Deer, one of the foremost evangelists of north Aberdeenshire. Among other places, Mungo’s name still clings at Kinnoir near Huntly and there is a Saint Mungo’s Hill at Glengairn.
After this northern mission, Mungo is believed to have returned to Glasgow. There is a somewhat unreliable account in the Martyology of Aberdeen (the dates do not seem to quite tie up) that he was visited by Saint Columba of Iona at Kilmacolm and that the two exchanged pastoral staffs. However, it is almost certain that Mungo was in Glasgow in the second half of the seventh century.[2]
Four items that refer to Mungo are to be found on the Glasgow coat of arms, referred to in the ancient rhyme:
Here is the bird that never flew
Here is the tree that never grew
Here is the bell that never rang
Here is the fish that never swam
It was almost certain that somewhere around his later period the famous miracle of the fish and the ring took place. Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde was suspected of infidelity by her husband, King Riderch, who demanded to see her ring, which he claimed she had given to her lover. In reality the King himself had thrown it into the River Clyde. Faced with execution she appealed for help to Mungo, who ordered a messenger to catch a fish from the river. On opening the fish, the ring was miraculously found inside it, which allowed the Queen to clear her name.
So far, we have dealt with three of the four symbols linked with Mungo that appear on the Glasgow coat of arms, namely the Bird (Saint Serf’s robin), the Tree (from which he plucked a twig that allowed him to light the church lamps at Culross) and the Fish. One only remains – the Bell, which remains more of a mystery and no one knows for certain why it never rang. Most Celtic apostles seem to have owned a bell, the exact purpose of which is uncertain but probably were used in worship. Very few of these bells have survived. One of the best examples – Saint Ternan’s Bell – was carelessly lost in the nineteenth century.
There is a legend that Mungo brought his bell from Rome. This seems unlikely as communications with mainland Europe were very difficult at the time, due to the infiltration of warlike peoples from the Low Countries and Scandinavia. Also, although Rome was increasing in importance as a seat of ecclesiastical power, the Celtic church only recognised this fact slowly and with a degree of resistance. The visit to Rome is more likely to be later wishful thinking and a subtle rewriting of history.
Mungo died in 601 or 612, having achieved a great deal. Because his life seems to have been influenced by later legends, there is the temptation to dismiss him altogether. That would be a mistake. There is no doubt that he was a real person and he left a valuable legacy behind him. Glasgow Cathedral in a very real sense is a witness to his early work being built on the site of his first chapel.
The City of Glasgow's motto Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of His word and the praising of His name and the more secular Let Glasgow flourish, are both inspired by Mungo's original call "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word".
Coat of Arms of the City of Glasgow