Churches dedicated to Our Lady and

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EmilyAlexandra

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Hopefully a simple question:

I have noticed that a lot of Catholic churches are dedicated to Our Lady and St X. However, the two that I know best are colloquially just known as “St X”. Where I live in London the Catholic parish church is dedicated to Our Lady and St Y, and everyone locally, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, just call the church “St Y’s”. By coincidence, where I used to live, the Catholic church was Our Lady and St Z, and everyone (again, including people who were regular members of the congregation) just knew it as “St Z’s”. I was wondering whether there is a convention to drop “Our Lady and” in everyday speech. By chance, however, I met someone who said she had visited the church I knew as “St Z’s”, and when I referred to it as “St Z’s”, she corrected me and said, “Well, if you mean Our Lady and St Z’s…”
 
There are local nicknames for every parish and school. Where I grew up there are schools named “St. Joseph” and “St. Edward” and they are locally known as Joe’s and Ed’s.

In USA we typically don’t have churches named “Our Lady and St. so-and-so”. I’m guessing those parishes where you are might be older parishes that were merged. In USA when we merge a parish, it typically will be given a whole new name, in order to avoid it having 2 or 3 different names.

My guess is that someone thought Our Lady was being dissed by her name being left out. Since that was not your intent, I would not worry about it. The only other possibility would be if there was another St. Z’s in the area and she was trying to differentiate between the two, but that seems unlikely.
 
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Seems like a UK tradition, although there are a couple places in the US like that.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
In USA we typically don’t have churches named “Our Lady and St. so-and-so”.
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Genesis315 said:
Seems like a UK tradition
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Interesting. In the UK I’ve come across more than 30 dedications that are “Our Lady and St Somebody”. I guess if a church has a dedication like Our Lady and St Rose of Lima or Our Lady and St Thomas of Canterbury, it’s likely that the name will get abbreviated.
Tis_Bearself said:
Where I grew up there are schools named “St. Joseph” and “St. Edward” and they are locally known as Joe’s and Ed’s.
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I think I would be able to guess those. However, I was confused by a high school in the suburbs of Cleveland known as “Mags”. I assumed that the school was named for St Mary Magdalene, as I have come across the abbreviation “St Mary Mag’s”. It turns out that “Mags” in this instance is used as a diminutive of Magnificat.
 
The papal cathedral for the Diocese of Rome is officially the “Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran”, however it has colloquially been known as “St. John Lateran” for centuries.

It would appear that dropping a common copatron, and identifying church by the unique patron saint is common at even the highest levels of the church!
 
Interesting fact. Thank you. One sees a similar phenomenon in the naming of some of our older educational institutions in England:
  • The King’s Hall and College of Brasenose in Oxford=Brasenose College
  • Manchester Academy and Harris College=Harris Manchester College
  • The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln=Lincoln College
  • St Mary’s College of Winchester in Oxford=New College
  • The House of the Blessed Mary the Virgin in Oxford, commonly called Oriel College, of the Foundation of Edward the Second of famous memory, sometime King of England=Oriel College
  • The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford=University College
 
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