Christianizing Coffee: a Maronite Origin of the Devilish Drink

Sponsors: Harvard Early Modern Workshop and Harvard Mahindra Humanities Seminar on the History of the Book 

Speakers: Ida Beckett, Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Jin-Woo Choi, History Department, both Harvard University

This is a hybrid event. In person: Lunch will be served: Please RSVP for lunch by April 28, 2026. Online via Zoom: Registration . 

Abstract: In 1665, Antonio Faustus Naironi, a Maronite Catholic from the Lebanese village of Ban, and Professor of Syriac at the Sapienza University of Rome, published a popular pamphlet on the “virtue of coffee.” Six years later appeared an expanded version of the same treatise in Latin, one which elaborated on the origins story of this ostensibly novel drink that was taking Europe by storm. Contrary to common belief at the time that it was a pernicious ‘Mahometan’ beverage, Naironi argued for the Christian provenance of coffee. In so doing, we show that he not only legitimized its contemporary consumption but also used its origin story to reconcile the history of the ‘Oriental Church’ with western Christendom. This article traces the invention of this Christian origin story of coffee, and subsequently its [mis]translations and eventual disappearance.