The History of Glasgow

Chapter IV - St. Kentigern's Return from Wales

IN or about the year 573, while Kentigern still remained in

Wales, the great battle of Ardderyd or Arthuret was fought
between the Pagan and the Christian parties and resulted
in the establishment of Rydderch Hael, or the Liberal, as
Christian King of Strathclyde. According to Joceline the
Christian religion had been almost entirely destroyed in
this territory, and the King, having set himself zealously to
restore it, and discovering no better plan for
accomplishing this object than to recall Kentigern to his
first see, messengers were despatched to him earnestly
entreating his return. Kentigern, therefore, left St.
Asaph's, accompanied by brethren of the monastery to
the number of 665, and on their way northward a halt
seems to have been made at Hoddam in Dumfriesshire
where he fixed his see for a time. It was after Kentigern's
return to Glasgow, which, it is supposed, could not have
taken place much before 582, that St. Columba with a
great company of his disciples from Iona made the visit
already referred to. Joceline gives a picturesque narrative
of the interview and mentions that on the visitors
approaching the place called "Mellindenor," a message
was sent forward to announce their arrival, and Kentigern
having called together his clergy and people, the two
companies came towards each other, amid the singing of
spiritual songs; and "when these two godlike men met,
they mutually embraced and kissed each other, and
having first satiated themselves with the spiritual banquet
of divine words, they after that refreshed themselves with
bodily food." [St. Kentigern, pp. 91, 106-7; Celtic
Scotland, ii. pp. 190-6.]

In a curious chapter headed "How King Roderick

conceded to him power over himself and his posterity,"
Joceline states that the King, with consent and advice of
his lords, gave his homage to St. Kentigern, and handed
over to him the dominion and princedom over all the
kingdoms. "Not in vain," adds Joceline, "but of set
purpose had he been called Kentigern, because by the
will of the Lord he ought to become the head lord of all;
for ` Ken' is caput in Latin, and the Albanic ` tyern 'is
interpreted doininus in Latin." [St. Kentigern, p. 94.] It is
not improbable that this statement is based on the fact
that the twelfth century successors of St. Kentigern were
vested in large estates and extensive jurisdictions
throughout the Cumbrian territory, all of which were
believed to have been bestowed on the bishopric by
sovereign authority.

After narrating particulars regarding the death of St.

Kentigern, which event is on reasonable grounds
supposed to have occurred on 13th January, 603,
Joceline concludes his biography with a chapter in which
he states that King Rydderch, who died in the same year,
had "remained much longer than usual in the royal town
which was called Pertnech." The place referred to
appears to be Partick, which long after that time became
the property of the church by gift of King David I. Both
Bishop and King were buried at Glasgow in the church
cemetery, where also, "as the inhabitants and
countrymen assert, 665 saints rest; [These are
understood to be the brethren who accompanied
Kentigern when he left the monastery in Wales (Celtic
Scotland, ii. p. 260).] and all the great men of that region
for a long time have been in the custom of being buried
there." [St. Kentigern, p. 118.]

In a previous part of his biographical work Joceline gives

an account of a cross "cut by quarriers from a block of
stone of wondrous size" and which, resisting all the
powers of many men, and the application of machinery,
for removal to the cemetery, was at last by miraculous
agency rolled there and raised to the place "where it
standeth to-day." The cross, it is added, "was very large
and never from that time lacked great virtue, seeing that
many maniacs and those vexed with unclean spirits are
used to be tied, of a Sunday night, to that cross, and in
the morning they are found restored, freed and cleansed,
though ofttimes they are found dead or at the point of
death." [St. Kentigern, p. 110.] Of this large block of
stone, hewn into the form of a cross and probably
sculptured, there seems to have been left no trace. On
account of its reputed possession of supernatural power,
leading to such deplorably misguided practices as those
just referred to, the cross had little chance of surviving the
Reformation if it lasted till that time, and either then or
previously it may have been broken up and used as
building material. The church and dwellings erected by St.
Kentigern and his more immediate followers were
probably constructed of wood or of stone of the rudest
description, and most of the material would naturally
disappear at a comparatively early date. As the result of
recent research, it is believed that of the original church
or of any buildings which may have replaced it, previous
to the twelfth century, no fragment, even of the
foundations, now remain.