Clement and The Madonna/Our Lady The Blessed Virgin Mary/St Mary;
Pope Clement I, d. end first century, is the patron saint of mariners andhis emblem is an anchor. Popular tradition has it that he was martyred bybeing lashed to an anchor and thrown into the Crimea. He was therefore popular with the Christianised Vikings when they converted from Thor and Odin and is most popularly known in the London children's rhyme "Oranges and lemonsSay the bells of St Clement's" - that is the London church of St Clement's Dane, founded by Danes in the 9th century.
St Clement was probably therefore the first and earliest patron saint of
Dundee, brought by trading merchant Danes/Vikings in the 10th century.
Wormit is a Viking/Danish place name meaning "place of the serpent/dragon".
St Clement's burial ground was probably the first Christian graveyard inDundee and would be somewhere under the underground car park and the mansewas recycled after the Reformation as the building for the grammar school.St Clement's Lane was demolished to build City Square and the Caird Hall.
St Clement was old hat and out of fashion by the time the revived Marian movement swept Europe in the 12th century and Dundee adopted her probablyat the instigation of the Anglo Norman mover and shaker David Earl ofHuntingdon. Yet another popular tradition has him promising to build achurch in her dedication when saved from shipwreck on return from theCrusades. The problem is he didn't go on Crusade, but Dundee was "EarlDavid's Burgh" before Robert I granted Dundee royal burgh status, so thenew church dedication would probably have been Earl David's. The Citychurches probably still take up the original twelfth century footprint.
Burgh fairs originally took on their names from their patron saints and soDundee's fairs were "Lady Mary's Fair".
Important wells, originally dedicated to pagan earth and water gods, weretargeted by Christian missionaries and the great well in Dundee is "OurLady [Mary's] Well", now Ladywell. The water source is now capped and is,appropriately, underneath the Ladywell Tavern. The well, when polluted,ironically killed off large numbers of Dundonians in the cholera outbreaksin the 19th century. The pre 1560 burgh seal depicted either The Madonna &Child, or St Clement in a boat, but political correctness after 1560 sawSt Clement (used less often and depicted by an anchor) and The Madonna(depicted by The Madonna Lily).
The Madonna Lily, blue/azure background, and "prudentia etcandore" (thought and purity) represent The Madonna, and the dragons aresaid to represent the overseas trade associated with St Clement's stool.
St Clement's successor church in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland would
be The Steeple Kirk but is not popularly known as that anymore. The Roman
Catholic diocese of Dunkeld has St Clement's remembered at their parish
church in Charleston.