Friends, for a little fun this Friday, we are going to discover another Saint that most of you probably thought was more fiction than fact. With a nod to all you Harry Potter fans, today I give you . . . . . St. Kentigern!
Don't recognize that name? Well, maybe you have heard him referred to as "St. Mungo." Yes - the famed wizard hospital was named for a real Saint.
Legend says that Kentigern's mother became pregnant by her lover. When her husband discovered this, he threw her off a cliff. (In another version, it was her father who had her thrown from the cliff) However it was, she survived the fall, made her way to shore and gave birth to a healthy son whom she named Kentigern. The abbot of a local monastery (St. Serf) gave the mother and child a home and raised the boy as his own son. It was Serf that gave him his well known pet name - Mungo is Scots Gaelic meaning "dear boy", or something similar.
Like his foster father, Mungo became a monk and was eventually consecrated bishop of what is now Glasgow. Many miracle legends grew up around him, but what is certain is that he ministered in the region of Glasgow and was well loved by the people he served. He lived to feeble old age and is said to have died in his bath on January 13, 614. On the spot where Mungo was buried now stands the cathedral dedicated in his honor. His shrine was a great center of Christian pilgrimage until the Scottish Reformation. His remains are said to still rest in the crypt.
St. Mungo's feast day is January 13. He is patron saint of Glasgow; Scotland; salmon; and those accused of infidelity.
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