Glasgow,
Scotland’s largest city, has a history stretching back
to earliest times. Stone Age canoes unearthed along the banks
of the River Clyde suggest early fishing communities.
Celtic druids were among the
first identifiable religious tribes to inhabit the area. It's
likely they would have traded with the Romans who, circa 80AD,
had a trading post in Cathures, the earlier name for Glasgow.
In 143AD the Romans erected the turf-built Antonine Wall stretching
from the Clyde to the Forth to separate Caledonia to the north
from Britannia to the south, but the wall was soon abandoned.
In 380AD St Ninian, the great
Christian missionary, passed through Cathures, consecrating
a burial ground, but beyond then little is known until the
arrival of St Kentigern in the 6th century. St Kentigern settled
in Glasgow (or Glas Cu, generally construed as “dear
green place”) in 543AD following exile from Culross
where his miracle powers had aroused jealousy among his monastic
brothers.
In Glasgow, he established his
Christian church on the banks of the Molendinar Burn, a tributary
of the Clyde, where Glasgow Cathedral now stands. Such was
his great popularity among his ecclesiastical community he
was named Mungo meaning “dear one”.
Legend has it St Mungo performed
four miracles in Glasgow, commemorated on the City of Glasgow’s
coat of arms, depicting a tree with a bird perched on its
branches and a salmon and a bell on either side.
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