Patron Saint of Ugly People: St. Drogo and St. Germaine Cousin

The saint traditionally called the patron of “ugly” or unattractive people is St. Drogo (1105–1186), a Flemish nobleman who became a shepherd and pilgrim, and whose painful illness left him so disfigured that he spent his last decades as a recluse in a cell beside a church. Others are St. Germaine Cousin, the shepherdess of Pibrac who was born with a deformed hand and was rejected by her family, and St. Margaret of Castello, who was born blind and deformed and abandoned by her parents. Their lives show that God, as Scripture says, “beholdeth the heart.” Below are their stories and prayers for anyone who struggles with how they look.

A short prayer for anyone who feels unattractive, written for this page:

Lord, you made me and you love me as I am.
When I feel ugly, unwanted or ashamed, remind me that you look at the heart.
St. Drogo, St. Germaine, pray for me. Amen.

St. Drogo

Drogo was born in 1105 into a noble family in Flanders. As a boy he learned that his mother had died giving birth to him, and he gave away his inheritance and set out as a penitent pilgrim, visiting Rome several times. For some years he worked as a shepherd at Sebourg, in northern France. A painful illness, believed to have been a severe hernia, ended his pilgrimages and made him hard to look at, so he had a small cell built against the wall of the village church, with one window toward the altar. He lived there as a recluse for about forty-five years, receiving little food, and died in 1186. He is the patron of shepherds, of coffee, and of people whom others find unattractive. His feast day is April 16. See the patron saint of coffee.

St. Germaine Cousin

Germaine was born around 1579 at Pibrac, near Toulouse, with a deformed right hand and a disease that caused swellings on her neck. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her stepmother treated her cruelly, making her sleep in the stable and sending her out to tend sheep. Germaine bore it with patience, prayed the Rosary in the fields, went to daily Mass, and shared her little bread with the poor. According to tradition, when her stepmother accused her of stealing bread one winter day, her apron opened to reveal fresh flowers. She was found dead on her straw bed in 1601, aged about twenty-two. She was canonized in 1867 and is a patron of victims of abuse, of people with disabilities and of the unloved. Her feast day is June 15.

St. Margaret of Castello

Margaret was born in 1287 in Italy, blind, very small, hunchbacked and lame. Her noble parents, ashamed of her, hid her away for years and finally abandoned her in the town of Città di Castello. Taken in by poor families, she became a Dominican tertiary, cared for the sick and the prisoners, and was loved for her cheerfulness. She died in 1320 and was canonized by Pope Francis in 2021. She is a patron of people with disabilities and of the unwanted.

What Scripture says

God looks at the heart (1 Kings 16:7, Douay-Rheims; 1 Samuel 16:7 in other Bibles):

And the Lord said to Samuel: Look not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature: because I have rejected him, nor do I judge according to the look of man: for man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart.

Of Christ, the suffering servant (Isaias 53:2–3, Douay-Rheims):

And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:
Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.

Prayers

Written for this page.

When I am mocked for my appearance

Lord Jesus, you were despised and mocked.
You know how much it hurts when people laugh at me.
Heal my wounds, help me to forgive, and show me my true worth in your eyes. Amen.

For self-acceptance

St. Germaine, you were rejected, yet you were full of God’s love.
Pray that I may accept the body God gave me,
care for it with gratitude, and let his love shine through me. Amen.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the patron saint of ugly people?

St. Drogo, whose illness made him hard to look at, is traditionally the patron of people considered unattractive. St. Germaine Cousin and St. Margaret of Castello are also invoked.

When is St. Drogo’s feast day?

April 16.

Who is the patron saint of people with disabilities?

St. Germaine Cousin and St. Margaret of Castello are both invoked as patrons of people with disabilities.

More prayers

Texts and sources

1 Kings 16:7 and Isaias 53:2–3 (Douay-Rheims).