A contemporary of the better known Columba of Iona and disciple of Saint Comgall, he was prior of Bangor Abbey in County Down, Ireland before making his missionary voyage to Scotland.

[2] While still a young boy, his mother took him to the monastery of Bangor Abbey in County Down in the north east of Ireland, where he was placed under the care of St. Comgall.

[5] He founded the first church in Paisley, thought to be at Seedhill and, after his death, the shrine of Saint Mirin became a centre of pilgrimage.

In King James IV's Charter of 1488 raising Paisley to the status of burgh of barony, one of the reasons cited was "the singular respect we have for the glorious confessor, Saint Mirin".

[7] There is a chapel within Paisley Abbey dedicated to Mirin containing a sculptured stone frieze depicting the life of the saint.

A pedestal of blond sandstone, designed by landscape architect Daniel McKendry, bearing the inscription taken from the Aberdeen Breviary At Length Full of Sanctity and Miracles, Mirin Slept in the Lord at Paisley was erected in 2003 opposite St Mirin's Cathedral at the junction of Incle Street, Gauze Street and Glasgow Road in Paisley.

A bronze statue of the saint[8] was mounted on the pedestal and was unveiled on the saint's day, 15 September 2007, by the Provost of Renfrewshire Councillor Celia Lawson in the presence of the Bishop of Paisley the Rt Rev Philip Tartaglia, the Minister of Paisley Abbey the Rt Rev Alan Birss, the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, Jim Sheridan MP, Hugh Henry MSP, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire James Wardrop and the sculptor Norman Galbraith.