The Order in Glasgow
The Order founded its priory in Glasgow in 1246, when William de Bondington, Bishop of Glasgow (whose seal is seen on the right), and the cathedral Chapter, at the behest of King Alexander III (1241-1286) welcomed the friars to the city, in response to a letter of Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254), asking that the Friars Preachers be received in his diocese.
The Dominicans in Glasgow were part of the wider presence of the Order in Scotland, Britain and Europe. Glasgow has a long history as an important ecclesiastical centre. The British bishop Kentigern (Mungo), who became the city's patron saint, established his see there, on an eminence on the northern side of the city, a mile or so from the River Clyde, beside the small river Molendinar. The site was carefully chosen, easily protected because of its eminence, and with an adequate water supply. Other, unreliable sources, state that there had already been an earlier ecclesiastical burial ground on that spot, founded by the British bishop Ninian (Nynia), bishop of the church in what is now Whithorn, in Galloway. Little is known of the subsequent history of the church in Glasgow until the twelfth century, when the diocese was re-established by King David I (1084-1153) around 1118.
The diocese was the largest in Scotland, and very important. It was always conscious of its founder, Kentigern, and two of its bishops, Herbert (1147-1164) and Jocelyn (1175-1199) commissioned a life of the saint to be written, to give Glasgow equal status with other important dioceses, in England and on the continent, which had lives extolling the deeds and merits of their patrons. The diocese was well organised, and well governed by a succession of capable bishops. It had a nucleus of learned canons, and a small library, which could possibly be seen as the nucleus of a future institute of learning. In 1492 the diocese was raised to the rank of archdiocese, alongside St Andrews.