St. Drogo

Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

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April 16 · Hermit

St. Drogo

St. Drogo

Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

Traditional feast

April 16
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

April 16
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Hermit

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 61 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

His tomb at Sebourg was erected in the middle of the nave of the church. On Trinity Sunday every year a procession is formed at Sebourg carrying the relics of S. Drogo. He is regarded in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes as the patron of shepherds, but at Ghent, for what reason it is impossible to divine, of coffee-house keepers.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

Keep their day. Remember them on April 16 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 61 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius, Molanus in his additions to Usuardus. S. Drogo seems not to have received much veneration before the 13th cent. Authority: — A life written in 13*0.] S. Drogo or Druon was born at Espinay shortly after the death of his father, and his birth caused the death of his mother, as he was taken from her by the Caesarean process. Thus he was from earliest infancy an orphan It was not till he was ten years old that he was told how his mother had sacrificed her life for him, and he was filled with intense self-loathing from that moment After having kept sheep in his early youth, he visited Rome, and then returned to Sebourg, near Valenciennes, where he had tended sheep for a good mistress, named Elizabeth la Haire. She received him on his return from Rome with the utmost kindness, and he would probably have continued in her service had he not been afflicted with a horrible rupture, of so distressing a nature that he inclosed himself in a cell where he could remain unseen. His patience and piety under this loathsome and hideous infliction were conspicuous. One day the church caught fire, but he would not come forth from his cell, and though part of his little home was consumed, he was uninjured. At length the protruded bowels putrified, and he died in lingering agonies.

His tomb at Sebourg was erected in the middle of the nave of the church. On Trinity Sunday every year a procession is formed at Sebourg carrying the relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Drogo.

He is regarded in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes as the patron of shepherds, but at Ghent, for what reason it is impossible to divine, of coffee-house keepers. S. Anicetus.

Feast days

Feast: April 16

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Drogo's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on April 16
Sts. Maro, Eutyches and Victorinus

Sts. Maro

April 16 · Martyrs
O

Sts. Olympias and Maximus

April 16 · Martyrs
St. Padarn of Vannes

St. Padarn of Vannes

April 16 · Bishop
← All 1727 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

Image: Église Saint-Druon de Sebourg 29.JPG · Chatsam · CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

Image: Chatsam, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.