Sir, – With the great day almost upon us, I find myself intrigued by a feature of the website of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Throughout the site, the patron saint is referred to as Saint Patrick, rather than St Patrick.
Casting my mind back, I believe this practice dates from around the time of the succession of Robert MacCarthy as dean in 1999. Older copies of the Cathedral Society of Friends newsletter used the shorter form, and I first spotted the change in the newsletter introducing the new dean.
Was this, then, something instigated by Dr MacCarthy? If so, I would be interested to know what was the reasoning behind it.
The abbreviation has always struck me as quite usual and perfectly admissible. With a new dean, may we now look forward to a restoration of the former style? – Yours, etc,