Patron Saint of Coffee: St. Drogo, Coffee House Keepers and a Morning Coffee Prayer

The patron saint of coffee, and especially of coffee house keepers, is St. Drogo (1105–1186), a Flemish nobleman who became a pilgrim, a shepherd and finally a hermit who lived for some forty-five years in a tiny cell beside a village church. He never tasted coffee, which reached Europe centuries after his death, and no one knows exactly how the patronage began, but by the nineteenth century the café keepers of Mons, in Belgium, near his shrine, had claimed him as their patron. His feast day is April 16. Below are his story, a little coffee history with a Catholic flavor, and prayers over your morning cup, for baristas and for coffee farmers.

A short prayer over your morning coffee, written for this page:

Who was St. Drogo?

Drogo was born in 1105 at Épinoy, in Flanders, into a noble family; his father died before he was born, and his mother died giving birth to him. When he learned as a boy that his birth had cost his mother’s life, he took it to heart, and at twenty he gave his goods to the poor and became a penitent pilgrim; he is said to have walked to Rome nine times. For six years he also worked as a shepherd for a woman of Sebourg, near Valenciennes. A legend says that people saw him at Mass in the village church and, at the same moment, tending his sheep in the fields.

When a painful illness, a severe hernia, ended his pilgrimages and made him unpleasant to look at, Drogo had a small cell built against the wall of the church at Sebourg. For some forty-five years he lived there as a recluse, with one window onto the altar, through which he followed Mass and received Communion, and another through which visitors passed him a little food and water. He died on April 16, 1186. He is the patron of shepherds, of coffee house keepers, of people with hernias, and of people whom others find unattractive.

How did St. Drogo become patron of coffee?

Nobody knows for certain. According to one account, a Belgian almanac of 1860 already records the cafetiers of Mons, not far from Sebourg, honoring him as their patron. Some people connect him with baristas because of the legend that he could be in two places at once, a gift every busy café worker would welcome. Others simply note that a saint who lived for forty-five years on very little might have been glad of a hot drink.

Coffee with a Catholic flavor

• Cappuccino takes its name from the Capuchin friars, whose brown habits and hoods have the color of coffee mixed with milk.
• A popular legend says that around 1600, when some urged Pope Clement VIII to ban coffee as a Muslim drink, he tasted it and gave it his blessing. The story cannot be confirmed, but it is still told in every coffee history.
• Most of the world’s coffee is grown by small farmers in poor countries, many of them Catholic. Buying fairly traded coffee is one way to live out the Church’s teaching on just wages.

Scripture praises the good gifts that strengthen and cheer us (Psalm 103:15, Douay-Rheims):

Prayers for coffee lovers

Written for this page.

For baristas and café workers

For coffee farmers

For coffee with a friend

Frequently asked questions

Who is the patron saint of coffee?

St. Drogo, a twelfth-century Flemish hermit, is the patron of coffee house keepers and is popularly called the patron of coffee.

When is St. Drogo’s feast day?

April 16.

Why is it called a cappuccino?

The name comes from the Capuchin friars, whose habits are the color of coffee with milk.

More patron saints

• Patron saint of ugly people
• Unusual patron saints
• Patron saint of beer
• St. Honoré, patron saint of bakers
• Morning offering
• Catholic grace before meals
• Patron saints of professions

Texts and sources

• Psalm 103:15 (Douay-Rheims; Psalm 104 in other numberings).