Public Service Announcement

Dear English-speaking Orthodox Christians,

"Saint" is one of many words in the English language brought to merry old England by the damnable francophone Normans who many nowadays also like to blame for taking England out of Orthodoxy when they arrived on the Isles in 1066. (It's not true - everything credible I've read places England firmly within the Church of Rome and therefore as much outside of world Orthodoxy after 1054 as the rest of Western and Central Europe was. Admittedly things went back and forth till 1204, but that's not the subject of this announcement, so we won't go there :-).) Apparently many people think it's a title and not an adjective, so I'm here to disabuse you of that notion. "Saint" means holy. It is therefore redundant (as well as highly annoying) to say or write something like "Holy Saint So-and-So, pray to God for us." Either say "holy" or "saint" - both are unnecessary, though God knows we Byzantines have a thing for the wordy and the redundant ;-). Perpetrators, you know who you are! Please stop now ;-).

Many thanks,
The Administrator

P.S. Yeah, there's not a lot of news today :-).