Outside one church mum meets the Spanish saint (7)
I believe the answer is:
michael
'spanish saint' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'outside one church mum meets' is the wordplay.
'outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters go outside others).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'mum' becomes 'ma' (both can mean mother).
'meets' becomes 'el' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'i'+'ch'='ich'
'ich' placed into 'ma' is 'micha'.
'micha'+'el'='MICHAEL'
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for michael that I've seen before include "- - Flanders, 18's lyricist" , "Archangel's name" , "1987 Best Actor Oscar winner for 'Wall Street'" , "Man" , "- Faraday, English scientist" .)