St Mungo, St Hilary of Poitiers

St Mungo, (also know as St Kentigern) was a missionary in the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late sixth century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow.

Mungo's mother Teneu was a princess, the daughter of King Lleuddun who ruled a territory around what is now Lothian in Scotland. She became pregnant after being raped by Owain mab Urien, according to the British Library manuscript.

Other historic accounts claim Owain and Teneu (also known as Thaney) had a love affair whilst he was still married to his wife Penarwen and that her father, King Lot, separated the pair after she became pregnant. Later, allegedly, after Penarwen died, Tenue/Thaney returned to King Owain and the pair were able to marry before King Owain met his death battling Bernicia in 597 AD.

Her furious father had her thrown from the heights of Traprain Law. Surviving, she was then abandoned in a coracle in which she drifted across the Firth of Forth to Culross in Fife. There Mungo was born.[

Mungo was brought up by Saint Serf who was ministering to the Picts in that area. It was Serf who gave him his popular pet-name. At the age of 25, Mungo began his missionary labours on the Clyde, on the site of modern Glasgow. He built his church across the water from an extinct volcano, next to the Molendinar Burn, where the present medieval cathedral now stands. For 13 years, he laboured in the district, living an austere life in a small cell and making many converts by his holy example and his preaching ...Read more

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