Dance Glasgow Flourish 2495

Emblazoned over the official entrance to Glasgow’s City Chambers are the words “Let Glasgow Flourish by the Preaching of the Word”. The civic coat of arms, with the shortened motto “Let Glasgow Flourish” is made up of an oak tree with a bird perching on top, a bell hanging from a lower branch and a fish with a ring in its mouth at the base of the tree.

These four symbols, the tree, the bird, the bell and the fish, are commemorative of the life of Glasgow’s patron saint, Kentigern or as he is more familiarly known, “Mungo”, meaning “dear friend”.

St. Kentigern, whose mission was the foundation of the future city of Glasgow, was born in Culross in Fife circa 518. For his work among the Strathclyde Britons, he was chosen Bishop of Cathures (Glasgow). In 543 he built a church on the present site of Glasgow Cathedral and it is interesting to note that this was twenty years before St. Columba brought Christianity to Iona. Driven by the persecution of a pagan king to the protection of St. David in Wales in 553, Kentigern founded a monastery at Llanelwy and returned to Scotland twenty years later to convert the Picts of Galloway. He spent his last years among his Christians in Glasgow and died there in 603 at the age of eighty-five.

By tradition the symbols of Glasgow represent legendary events in the life of Kentigern. The tree, a bough that burst into flame when he signed it with the Cross; the bird, one belonging to St. Serf of Culross that he revived; the bell, brought from Rome; the fish with the ring in its mouth, proof supplied by Kentigern of the marital fidelity of a queen falsely accused.

There are the cynical who might say of these symbols:

The tree that never grew,
The bird that never flew,
The fish that never swam,
The bell that never rang.

But it can also be claimed that the citizens of Glasgow have every right to believe in miracles and Kentigern, St. Mungo, their “dear friend”, was one of their very own. Let Glasgow flourish!