THIS week, we flesh out the founder and patron saint of Glasgow, who was a Fifer with a Welsh name. His proper name was Kentigern, which is not Welsh for “Kent his faither”, though thereby hangs a tale.

Many tales indeed. For, born around 518 A.D., Saint Mungo was a contemporary of the legendary King Arthur, a denizen of the “lost century” after the Romans had pushed off, and proper records were no longer kept.

Tales took their place, and nothing was written about Mungo until the 12th century, though his story was passed down by oral biographers, so to say. You might also say the further back you go in history, nothing was true. Nothing ever happened. It’s like Russia today. But the truth is, some things did happen, and St Mungo was definitely one of them. Glasgow was another. That’s at least two.

Let’s begin this tale with conception. Mungo may have been conceived in rape. His mother Teneu (or Thenew or Thenog or Thaney or Tannoch, as in the Brae of Dr Finlay) was a princess, daughter of King Lleuddun (or Lothus or Loth) who ruled the Brittonic kingdom of the Gododdin (or Votadini) and after whom Lothian was named.

The story goes that she became pregnant after being raped by Owain mab Urien, her cousin and the son of King Urien of Rheged (the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now southern Scotland and northern England), who may have fooled her initially by dressing as a woman.

As a result, her understanding father had her thrown – in some accounts, strapped to a chariot – from Traprain Law (a hill in modern-day East Lothian and seat of the Votadini tribe).

Obviously, she survived and somehow made her way, probably with help, to the shores of the Firth of Forth, whence she caught the ferry (lucky her) or coracle to Culross in Pictish Fife. Here, she was taken in by the community of St Serf and gave birth to Kentigern: Cyndeyrn in Welsh, probably from the Brittonic British Cuno-tigernos, composed of cun, a hound, and tigerno, a lord, prince, or king. I’ve also seen it transliterated as “big or head chief”, which makes more sense, though may be wishful thinking.

It’s all, literally, academic anyway, as St Serf nicknamed him “Mungo”, Mwyn-gu in Cymric meaning “dear one” (see also Mo Choe in Gaelic). As for his dear maw she’s been described as “Scotland's first recorded rape victim, battered woman and unmarried mother”. Teneu too became a saint, venerated in medieval Glasgow. St Enoch Square is said to mark the site of a chapel dedicated to her, built on or near her grave (“St Enoch” is apparently a corruption of "St Teneu”; this is etymology, remember – nothing sounds like anything it’s meant to sound like).

After this dodgy start, Mungo was brought up a good boy and, at the age of 25, started missionary work in Brittonic Strathclyde, back when it was a kingdom rather than, as most recently, a cooncil. By the Molendinar Burn, he lived an austere life in a small cell and, thus making an example of himself, attracted a community that built a church and became the founders of Glasgow (from variously “Clasgu”, “Glas Ghu”, “Glaschu”, and “Eglais-Cu”, all of which at any rate mean “dear family”).

Around 553, the anti-Christian king Morken came to the throne in Strathclyde, forcing Mungo to flee for Wales, where he founded a monastery (later a cathedral) at Llanelwy. While there, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome.

Back up north, the Christians overthrew Morken in 573, and the new King of Strathclyde, Rhydderch (Roderick) Hael, persuaded Mungo to return and made him Bishop of Strathclyde. For eight years, he worked out of Hoddom in Dumfriesshire, from which he evangelised Galloway and Cumberland, but in 581 he returned to Glasgow.

A year or two later, he was visited in Kilmacolm by St Columba, at that time based in Strathtay. The two saints embraced and, according to reports, exchanged pastoral staves, as you did, and had a long chat: “So, you good, yeah?” “Yeah, I’m good. You?” “I’m good. So …”. “Saints preserve us, is that the time?”

He is said to have died in his bath on a Sunday in 614 (date disputed, natch) which, if true, means he must have been 96. Decent innings for these days. The bath story has also been disputed, with collapse during a baptismal service adduced as a more likely cause (possibly something to do with water business being mistranslated).

He was buried near his church, now the site of Glasgow Cathedral, where his remains are said to still rest in the crypt.

In the early 12th century, Bishop Jocelin of Glasgow commissioned a Life of Saint Mungo, later rewritten by the monk Jocelyn of Furness in 1185, the work’s purpose having been to promote Mungo as a saint, which meant showing he’d performed miracles.

Accordingly, four were adduced, and these now feature in Glasgow’s coat of arms, with the deeds famously commemorated in verse: Here is the bird that never flew/Here is the tree that never grew/Here is the bell that never rang/Here is the fish that never swam.

The first refers to a robin that Mungo restored to life; the second to frozen hazel branches that he used to rekindle a fire and which grew into a tree; the third to a bell brought back by Mungo from Rome; the fourth to a fish that, on Mungo’s instigation, coughed up a ring that had been thrown into the Clyde.

Today, on Glasgow’s High Street, a huge and massively popular (1.5 million views in its first week online) mural by Australian street artist Sam Bates, better known as Smug, depicts St Mungo with robin. Churches and schools are named after the saint and, as educated readers will know, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books feature St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Not bad for a wee boy who, while still in the womb, was chucked off a fortress wall and found himself being paddled in a coracle to Fife.