St Mungo (4)

Story of the mound of Dovehill

DURING the sojourn of St. Mungo in Wales, which is said to have lasted for eleven years, civiI war raged in the kingdom of Cumbria, or Strathclyde; but a decisive battle at Arthuret, on the borders of Dumfriesshire and Cumberland, or, as some think, at Airdrie, settled the dispute in favour of Roderick the Bountiful, who, it is said, had been baptised by St. Patrick in Ireland. 

One of the first acts of his reign was to send to St. Mungo in Wales, praying him most urgently to return. The saint complied with his request, and his re-entry was one of triumphal rejoicing. 

Either at the time of his return, or shortly after it, St. Mungo was preaching to the people on a plain, but as he could not he seen or heard by a large portion of the multitude, he manifested his miraculous power by causing the ground on which he stood to rise up to a mound, and he then continued his remarks, to the better edification of his hearers.

 Tradition has it that the place where this event occurred was at what is now known as Dovehill, off the Gallowgate, a little to the east of Glasgow Cross, and that this incident gave rise to the motto of the city, "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word." 

Story of the Ring and the Salmond

KING Roderick had given to his consort, Queen Langueth, at the time of their marriage, a very precious and peculiar ring. This pledge of her husband's regard was, it is stated, given by the frail queen to one of the courtiers. One day, after a royal hunt in the forest of Clydesdale, the king, in passing, discovered this courtier sleeping off the fatigue of the chase underneath a tree, and on his finger he observed his royal nuptial gift. 

The king adroitly slipped the ring off the finger of the sleeper without awakening him, and cast it into the river. He then went home in a jealous rage, and demanded from the queen the ring he had given her, on pain of death should she fail to produce it.

 In the first instance she sent to the courtier, asking him to return the ring; but, of course, he was unable to comply with her urgent request, although how he had lost it, he did not know!

In her despair, the queen went to St. Mungo, confessed all, and implored his aid. The saint pitied his fair penitent, who may have been more foolish than guilty; at all events, he lost no time in assisting her out of her most sorry plight, as he ordered a line to be cast into the river, and to have the first fish caught brought alive to him; and on this being done, he took from its mouth the ring in question, which he handed to the queen, who returned it to her husband, who was satisfied, and they lived happily ever after. This is "the fish that never swam" of the popular rhyme. 

Story of the Ram's Horn. 

THIS story is connected with the visit of St. Columba to St. Mungo. Some of the followers of the western saint are stated to have laid hold of a fat wether (type of sheep/lamb)belonging to the Glasgow bishop's flock, which they coveted and resolved to make their own. The shepherd adjured them to desist, but they paid no heed to his appeals, although he added that if they asked his master, he had no doubt that he would bestow it on them. As the faithful shepherd continued to resist the theft, he was knocked down. and one of the marauders, seizing the ram by the horn, cut off its head, which, it is said, instantly petrified, and stuck to his hand beyond the power of man to remove.

In this fix he was forced to go and make confession of his sin to St. Mungo, from whom he not only obtained absolution and relief, but even a gift of the coveted ram. The scene of this marvel was afterwards known as the lands of Ramshorn, and on them St. David's or the Ramshom Church now stands.