Story: Saint Kentigern and the Robin

Glasgow, Scotland is a very quaint place. There are lots of birds, lots of friendly people and lots of saints. Not long ago, I lived in a nest on the highest tree.  On one particular day, a large ice storm hit. Our nest came tumbling down to the ground, my mom flew away, but my siblings weren’t so lucky. I sat there, freezing, wondering what was going to happen to us. Someone had to see us when they were walking by, right? Hours passed… and no one had walked by. The sun started to set, and I closed my eyes. “Please, please, please someone find us.”

CRUNCH. I jolted awake. “What on earth was that?” I thought. I quickly opened my eyes, and saw a large man reaching down to pick me up. His ice blue eyes focused in on me. “Hello!” The man chuckled. He scooped me up, and we were on our way. He told me his name was Saint Servan and my siblings didn’t survive. We walked for quite a while, until we turned up at a beautiful castle. “Welcome to your new home!” Saint Servan bellowed. We walked in to castle where it was warm and smelled like freshly baked apple pie.

We walked back to Saint Servan’s room, where he quickly grabbed a small round pillow. He began to make me a bed while I sat on the dresser and watched. I wanted to tell him thank you, but I wasn’t quite sure how. A small, soundless whistle came out. Ok, lets try again. Another whistle, but this one louder than the first. Finally, the third whistle was loud enough and Saint Servan turned around. “Well you are so welcome my friend!”

The next morning, the Saint put food in his hand to see if I could eat it. I hopped over to his hand and quickly finished the food. “Wow! You have quite the appetite.” This became an everyday routine for us. Each morning I would eat out of his hand, get on his shoulder and go start the day. The castle that we lived in was actually a boarding school for boys.  The boys all had their own nickname for me, but my favorite was a boy named Kentigern. I think he was my favorite because he was also Servan’s favorite, but he gave me his scraps, so we were best friends.

For some odd reason, the other boys in our school hated him. They did not realize that I could understand their plots to make Kentigern fail. Kentigern was in charge of the wood-burning furnace one night. The boys tried to pour water over it so Kentigern would get in trouble and the castle would be freezing. Little did they know I was watching. I carefully woke up Kentigern at midnight to go check the furnace. The boys had already poured water on it, but only a short time ago. The fire still had embers in it, meaning Kentigern could easily start the fire again.

The boys were annoyed, so they tried to sabotage him again. This time, with me. They captured me while I was asleep and put me in a bag. “What did I ever do to these boys?” I thought. They removed the bag and before I knew it, a boy had his hands cupped around me. Click. I was in a forest. There were a million birds that looked just like me around! “My goodness! What is this place?” I flew over to a bird. “Hello, can you help me?” I asked. “Yes, what can I help you with?” “Where are we?” I questioned. “You’re in the Limbo Forest! It’s a place for birds that aren’t dead, but may not be alive.” “What? What on Earth are you talking about?” “You’ll see.” Minutes passed, I was already bored. A bunch of birds sitting around. Wooo. Suddenly, click.

I was back home! I looked up to see Kentigern crying over me. “What is going on?” I whistled, but they didn’t understand. The mean boys of the school had tried to frame Kentigern and kill me! This is how we found out Kentigern’s tears heal people! Kentigern lived on to become a bigger and better saint than Saint Servan. He saved so many lives, including mine!

Author's Note: The original story, Saint Kentigern and the Robin, focuses on Kentigern and how he was bullied. I think telling the story from an animals perspective adds an interesting twist. I also wanted to give the robin a bigger back story, because Saint Servan loves him so much. I wanted to show their special bond! 

Bibliography: Abbie Farwell Brown, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts, Link to Saint Kentigern and the Robin. 

Image: University of Glasgow from Wikipedia.