Stephanie: I am known by my broadcasting show title over at twitter. I hate that it limits to so few characters. Your questions about St. Michael the Archangel deserve 50,000 words unto itself.

Any modern catholic, within the age demographic you specified, are raised to be reverent towards images of saints as well as Jesus' Holy family. After a search of my consciousness, I have never prayed to St. Michael the archangel by calling him Saint Mike. I guess if your character cop were to do that sort of thing, it would be quite telling of just who this person is and how his relationship to God and the those we honor as Saints. If I saw a person pray to "Saint Mike" I would assume then that he has an informal and comfortable relationship with him. I would also assume that he was raised with more liberal conditions to Catholicism.

The college in Vermont and the university in Toronto (and the hockey team associated with them) I have referred to as "Saint Mike's". I guess those are acceptable.

As far as your Twitter question about the ranking of saint and archangel, I can try to simply try to explain it this way. Archangels outrank regular angels, but as a saint, it does not signify a rank within heaven. It is my own personal belief that everyone is truly beautiful and equal in heaven especially to those whom we know lived on earth and was able to live holy lives as an example to the rest of us. Archangels and Saints are merely job titles.

I would personally never EVER encourage anyone who wish to pray to Saint Michael the Archangel to intercede for us on earth for God's grace to refer him as "Saint Mike". His role in God's plan deserves the utmost reverence humanly imaginable.

I hope this long answer, from a devout catholic who (as you could possibly guess) has a special devotion to the Archangel, helps you develop your character and provides a grace from God that can extend through to those and bring them to a closer relationship to God.

Thanks for your comments here and at Twitter both. :)

I guess I should specify a little - My character is a cop and I wouldn't ever have imagined her praying TO St Michael as "Saint Mike". She would definitely address him more respectfully than that. But when she woke up, her saint medal was gone from around her neck, and I had her asking, "Where's my Saint Mike?" while she came out from under morphine. I definitely don't want it to be jarring or blasphemous, though, because that's definitely not my character's intent.

I'd never thought of "saint" or "archangel" as a job title, but that's a fascinating way to look at it. I want to think about that more.

I was raised a Protestant, but I've always been fascinated with my dad's family religion. Protestants, at least of my variety, don't hear much about the saints (except when ignorant people in the church talk about how they think Catholics worship Mary and saints). A lot of the Biblical saints, of course, are revered as God's chosen speakers and teachers, but we don't have quite the same approach.

I really appreciate your weighing in on this. :)

Yay!!! Progress is progress, right? Keep it up! :)

Thanks! I know you were ahead of me last night. I hope your writing day today was productive too! :)