collateral

St Peter's Seminary, Cardross Isi Metzstein and Andy MacMillan, Gillespie, Kidd & Coia

This is wild.

It’s by Sam Bates, aka Smug, an Australian street artist in Glasgow. It took about a week to paint, though still needs a few finishing touches to the hand. As far as I’m aware it depicts Mungo in modern-day clothes. Mungo is Glasgow’s patron saint, born in the 6th century. The story goes that when he was young, some boys from his village started throwing stones at robins that were pecking on the ground for scraps.

“One bird was hit and fell to the ground. The boys ran away. Mungo ran, too, but he ran to the fallen bird. Picking it up he smoothed and caressed its feathers and prayed over it. After a little while it revived and flew away. Perhaps it was only stunned. The villagers called it a miracle and so it was that a small boy should want to help a fallen bird in trouble.”

Joaquim Guedes: The Kerti House, São Paulo (1971)