Solution: Saintly Professions
Answer: VOWTOBRITAIN

Written by Sam Lam, with ideas from Dawson Do

Each of the strings consist of the names of two Catholic saints (as the title indicates) with their letters interleaved. The first X letters of one name appear uninterrupted; then, the first X letters of the second name also appear uninterrupted; finally, the rest of the letters of both names alternate. X will be used as an index at the last step.

Each pair of saints shares a common profession of patronage (as the title indicates). Each profession corresponds to one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, almost all of which are titled “Worshipful Company of X” where X is a profession. This is clued in the flavor text with the exact words “worshipful” and “company”, as well as a reference to guilds in “gilded”.

To help in determining the right companies, the clues have been given in order so that the names of the professions according to how they are written in the name of the company (such as “Chartered Secretaries and Administrators” instead of just “secretaries”) are all in alphabetical order.

The separated names and corresponding professions are as follows:

# Orig St. 1 St. 2 Substr Worshipful Company
1 BARBGEORAGREA BARBARA GEORGE 4 Armourers and Brasiers
2 CRLOASREE CLARE ROSE 1 Broderers
3 CATHECLAUDREINE CATHERINE CLAUDE 5 Chartered Secretaries and Administrators
4 CRISPPETERIN CRISPIN PETER 5 Cordwainers
5 BENEPATRDIICCKT BENEDICT PATRICK 4 Engineers
6 FRKAATNECRIIS FRANCIS KATERI 2 Environmental Cleaners
7 JOHELINGBIAUPSTIST JOHNBAPTIST ELIGIUS 3 Farriers
8 VEHURNONNAICA VERONICA HUNNA 2 Launderers
9 THOMYVESASMORE THOMASMORE YVES 4 Solicitors
10 FRANCIJOHNBOSSSCAOLES FRANCISSALES JOHNBOSCO 6 Stationers and Newspaper Makers
11 VSITNECPEHNATNFERRER VINCENTFERRER STEPHEN 1 Tylers and Bricklayers
12 AUMRABNADN AMAND URBAN 1 Vintners

The livery companies have a strict order of precedence, which can be used to reorder the clues. This way, when the index X from earlier is used as an index into the profession, the answer VOW TO BRITAIN will be spelled out.

Livery # Worshipful Company Orig Substr Index
11 Vintners AUMRABNADN 1 V
22 Armourers and Brasiers BARBGEORAGREA 4 O
27 Cordwainers CRISPPETERIN 5 W
37 Tylers and Bricklayers VSITNECPEHNATNFERRER 1 T
47 Stationers and Newspaper Makers FRANCIJOHNBOSSSCAOLES 6 O
48 Broderers CRLOASREE 1 B
55 Farriers JOHELINGBIAUPSTIST 3 R
79 Solicitors THOMYVESASMORE 4 I
87 Chartered Secretaries and Administrators CATHECLAUDREINE 5 T
89 Launderers VEHURNONNAICA 2 A
94 Engineers BENEPATRDIICCKT 4 I
97 Environmental Cleaners FRKAATNECRIIS 2 N

Author’s Notes

This marks my second British-inspired puzzle after the Mornington Crescent puzzle from last year. Similarly, New York Counterpoint marks my second music-inspired puzzle after the Tonnetz puzzle from 2019. The flavor text for this puzzle was not written very well. Similarly, the flavor text of New York Counterpoint was not written very well.