This saint’s mother was the unmarried daughter of a Scottish king. When she was found to be pregnant, her father set her adrift in a small boat on the River Forth. On the shore in Culross, where they landed, she gave birth to Kentigern. They were rescued by a hermit, St. Serf, who raised the boy and gave him the pet name Mungo (“my darling”), by which he would be known. 

Mungo settled in what is now Glasgow. There he won a reputation for holiness and was eventually consecrated bishop. He was known for his extreme discipline and selfdenial. Each day he recited the entire psalter, and often prayed while standing in freezing streams. He undertook long missionary journeys by foot.  

Among the many miracles ascribed to him, the most famous involves a king who, suspecting his wife of infidelity, demanded that she produce a ring she had given to one of his knights. In fact, the king had thrown it into the sea. When she appealed to Mungo for help, he sent one of his monks to catch a salmon, which was found to have swallowed the missing ring. Thus, the queen’s honor was safeguarded. (The elements of this story—the ring and the fish—appear in the coat of arms of the City of Glasgow.)  

St. Mungo lived to the age of eighty-five and died while, uncharacteristically, enjoying a hot bath on January 13, 603.  

“While Christian truths Saint Mungo taught / His people to discern, / And under God, that gentle saint, / was hailed as Kentigern.” —The Legend of St. Mungo