St Kentigern's Academy

Kentigern was born in 518. He was the son of Tannoch, a princess of Lothian, who has given her name to St Enoch's Square in Glasgow, and to Tannochside near Uddingston. Tannoch's father was a pagan and when she adopted Christianity she was expelled from her home. During her wanderings she was raped, and her father ordered that she be set adrift in an open boat at Aberlady in order that her pregnancy should not bring a slur on the family name. The boat was washed upon the shore at the Christian settlement of Culross and there the infant Kentigern was born. He was christened Kendyern, British for "Great Chief'. (The British form indicates that the 'g' should be soft. The hard 'g' perhaps arises from the fact that Jocelyn wrote in Latin). But within the community he was often referred to by the pet name of Myncho, which has become Mungo, and means "little dear". It is by this name that he is known as the patron saint of Glasgow.