Drogo Sacramentary
The Drogo Sacramentary is a Carolingian illuminated manuscript from around 850 AD, kept in Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS lat. 9428). It is a sacramentary, a book containing all the prayers a priest says through the year. In the manuscript, Christ is the central figure, shown with symbolic imagery as he ascends toward God’s hand.
It was written and painted for Drogo, Charlemagne’s son, who was the Bishop of Metz. Metz was an important church center where rulers were crowned and buried, and in 843 it became the capital of Lotharingia. Drogo’s position helped him become a major patron of 9th‑century art; he decorated Metz Cathedral with notable works of Carolingian beauty. The Drogo Sacramentary is the most mature of three surviving court-school manuscripts and shows it was created in a royal workshop, not a monastery. It includes only the liturgical prayers the bishop used.
A striking image is the Palm Sunday initial O, which presents a new kind of Crucifixion scene called Christus patiens. In this scene, Christ’s body bleeds water and blood into a chalice held by Ecclesia, the Church; a serpent winds around the base of the cross, and the Sun and Moon look on from above.
The manuscript’s style reflects the patron’s influence and is the result of a small, closely cooperating group of artists. It measures 264 by 214 millimeters and has 130 folios, and it is lavishly illuminated.
Art historian Sonia Chalif Simon studied the work in her doctoral dissertation, Studies on the Drogo Sacramentary: Eschatology and the Priest-King (1975, Boston University).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:18 (CET).