St Mungo (1)

The saint is said to have been born about A.D. 527, and to have been the son of Ewen ap Urien, a prince of Strathclyde, his mother being Thenaw, a daughter of Loth, King of Northumbria, which kingdom then extended along the eastern coast, from the Firth of Forth, or Scots Sea, as it was long named, to the Firth of Tyne. The mother of St. Thenaw is said to have been either an aunt or half-sister of the famous King Arthur. The saint was thus cousin or niece to King Arthur, and sister to the "gentle Oawaine," so renowned as one of the chief knights of the Round Table. 

ST. THENAW, or Tennoch (latterly corrupted into Enoch), is said to have been a. believer in the Christian faith, but not baptised until after the birth of her famous son. Her earnest longing is said to have been to preserve her virginity, and to dedicate her life to the service of the Church, but her semi-Pagan father insisted on her marrying the Prince of Strathclyde. Much obscurity rests on the early part of her history; but she seems to have incurred her father's dire displeasure, and to have fled, or been driven, from his court. She returned to it, aud her enraged parent is stated to have ordered her to be stoned to death. As the courtiers, or servants, did not wish to lift a stone against the daughter of the king, they placed her in a two-wheeled cart, and hurled it over a precipice, in order that she might be dashed to death against the stones beneath; but the cart, so says the story, descended with " a gently gliding motion to the ground," and she escaped unhurt, to the great joy of many.

 St. Enoch's Church, Square, and Burn, instead of being named after, and dedicated to the antediluvian patriarch, as many suppose, were, without doubt, so named in honour of the mother of St. Mungo. It is also on record that the original name of Trongate was "St. Thenaw's Gate." 

King Loth, in common with the enemies of the Christian faith at and around bis court, charged Thenaw with being a sorceress or witch, and he gave orders that she should be placed in a frail coracle or boat, and cast adrift at Aberlady  to the mercy of the winds and waves. After tossing about on the sea. for some time, the boat was carried by the current, or as the legend has it, was borne by a shoal of fishes, first to the Isle of May, and from thence wafted into a bay on the north side of the Firth of Forth, where the town of Culross now stands. There, by the embers of a fire on the beach, which had been left by some fishermen, the sainted mother gave birth to her sainted and famous son, as the legend says, amid the joyous song of ' angelic hosts around. '

ST. SERF, who was in his cell near by, and at his morning devotions, is said to have heard the angelic strain which heralded the birth of the future saint, and when mother and son were soon after brought to him by a shepherd, he received them with honour, and "baptised in the sacred font" both mother and son," giving to him the name of Kentigern, that is, lord-in-chief. " It is further told that St. Serf, who educated the boy with pious and tender care, and who was greatly loved by him, on account of the gentle and loving disposition of the lad, to whom he gave the pet name of "Mungo," which means" the dear one." .. In godly fear he learns to spend his days, And God's commandments studiously obeys." 

In the following days,  I'll be adding to this piece.