Copies of manuscript on saint�s life gifted to city

TODAY, Glasgow spends millions on its Scotland with Style campaigns, but the city has the marketing genius of one 12th-century monk to thank for its first tourist boom.

A manuscript detailing the exploits of St Mungo, which helped make the city a must-see pilgrimage destination across mediaeval Europe, will be unveiled to the public this week to mark the patron saint's feast day.

The Life Of St Kentigern, written by the hagiographer Jocelin of Furness around 1185, popularised Kentigern, later known as Mungo, and his miraculous achievements in a small 6th-century settlement by the Clyde. It led to St Mungo's formal canonisation in Rome and elevated the status of the Glasgow bishopric, or diocese, which soon became one of the largest and wealthiest in Scotland.

The historic document has held been in Marsh's Library in Dublin for more than 300 years, but a heritage working group established in 2005 managed to secure five reproductions, now gifted to the people of Glasgow.

Neil Baxter, one of those who persuaded the Dubliners to part with the vellum-bound tome long enough to create the new editions, said the Life Of St Kentigern played a hugely important role in the expansion of the city.

"The book was essentially a mechanism for focusing attention and raising the status of the city," said Baxter. "It establishes the importance of St Mungo and his connections with Glasgow, and creates the myths around the bird, bell, fish and tree. It was a brilliant early tourism manoeuvre and transformed the economic opportunities for Glasgow.

"It is important to recognise Glasgow has profound roots around pilgrimage, rather than just thinking about its expansion through trading and industry," he added. "It's another part of completing the city's identity. The religious roots still have resonance for people."

Glasgow councillor Catherine McMaster, who has been given one of the five copies for her work in recovering the text, added: "We might not have been able to repatriate the Kentigern book, but I was thrilled by the reproductions because we actually have very little in Glasgow of that early mediaeval period. They belong to everyone in Glasgow, because everyone should know about the beginnings of the city."

Born in Fife, Kentigern began his missionary labours along the Clyde at the age of 25. He may have only lived in the district for 13 years or so, preaching and converting in Wales and other parts of pictish Scotland, but it was the miracles conjured up in Glasgow that inspired stories which survived the centuries.

Jocelin states in his biography of St Mungo that he rewrote his "life" from these early oral accounts and one written document in Gaelic. The monk seems to have altered parts of the original life he did not understand, and added others, such as a trip to Rome, that served the purpose of promoting the bishopric of Glasgow.

"It is beautifully written by a very skilful writer and it was the document that made Glasgow known throughout Europe," said McMaster. "It was written by Jocelin for political reasons, to officially elevate St Mungo from folk legend. He succeeded, because once it had a patron saint to raise its profile, the city became a number one tourist attraction."

More than 800 years after the Life Of St Kentigern was written, Glasgow's religious sites remain an important part of the 2.8 million visitor trips made to the city each year.

Mungo was buried in the grounds of Glasgow Cathedral and his four miracles are represented on Glasgow's coat of arms. His shrine was a great centre of Christian pilgrimage until the Reformation, and the patron saint's remains are said to still rest in the cathedral crypt.

"St Mungo is still a hugely important figure because people are becoming more interested in how the city first developed," said the Rev Dr Laurence Whitley, minister at Glasgow Cathedral.

"We get around 100,000 visitors a year and, increasingly, many are Glasgow residents. Every other day we have people who say they've lived in Glasgow all their life and thought they'd come in to see where the city began.

"If it hadn't been for St Mungo and Jocelin's book, people might have gathered elsewhere. He's been a good religious figurehead for the city and has created a lot of interest whenever he's spoken about."

Whitley will lead a special ceremony alongside Archbishop Mario Conti at the cathedral on the anniversary of St Mungo's death, January 13, and hopes the ecumenical service in the saint's honour will become an annual event. The service will feature 12th-century music uncovered and rearranged by researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

A copy of the Kentigern book will be unveiled at a presentation lecture at the Mitchell Library on Saturday, and other copies have been given to Glasgow Cathedral, archdiocese and presbytery.