The Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral is the senior cleric of the Protestant St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, elected by the chapter of the cathedral. The office was created in 1219 or 1220, by one of several charters granted to the cathedral by Archbishop Henry de Loundres between 1218 and 1220. For centuries, the Dean of St. Patrick's was the only dean in Dublin and documents of those years often refer to him as the "Dean of Dublin" – but from around 1539 there was also the office of "Dean of Christ Church Cathedral", which had been a priory, headed by a prior and canons.
