Q Was there ever a saint called Leger and, sticking to a sporting theme, was there ever a real person called St Mirren, as in the football club. - David Blake, Durham.

A Both St Leger and St Mirren were saints. St Leger, also known as Leodgar, was a Seventh Century Frankish bishop who was born around 616 AD.

Leger was appointed Bishop of Auton but became involved in a power struggle with a local mayor called Ebroin. Ebroin's troops eventually cornered Leger and gouged out his eyes. Leger would suffer further mutilations during his troubled term of office and was eventually deposed from his see by a council of bishops. He was later killed.

The name St Leger developed into a surname, perhaps through a Norman family name that was imported into England and then later into Ireland where it also occurs as Sallanger.

It was an Irish branch of the St Leger family that gave its name to Doncaster's famous horse race. The St Leger stakes was founded by an Irish soldier, Lieut Col Anthony St Leger, and the first race took place on September 24, 1776, on Doncaster's Cantley Common. Three years later it moved to the Town Moor. The St Leger has been held every year since 1776, except in 1939 when it was cancelled because of the war.

St Mirren was more properly known as St Mirrin and was born in Bangor in northern Ireland during the Sixth Century AD. It is thought he moved to Paisley where he founded the first church.

Mirrin is remembered in the name of Inchmurryn in Loch Lomond, an island with a name that can be translated to mean Mirren's island. However it was at Paisley that Mirrin died. In 1169, monks of the Cluniac order settled in Paisley from Shropshire and founded a church and parish that they dedicated to St Mirrin. The shrine of the saint's tomb was placed in a later abbey church which still exists in Paisley today. The association with Mirrin considerably elevated Paisley's status and was one of the main reasons why the town was created a Scottish burgh by King James IV in 1488.

The name of St Mirren features in the town's coat of arms and in the name of the Roman Catholic cathedral established in 1947. Of course, it is through Paisley's football club that the name of St Mirren is best known. The club was founded in 1876.

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Published: 07/10/2002