Saint Grobian (Medieval Latin, Sanctus Grobianus) is a made-up patron saint associated with people who are rude or unrefined. His name comes from the Middle High German words grob or grop, which mean rough or vulgar. A similar word in Old High German is gerob or gerop. The term "grobian" has become part of the English language as a rare word used to describe someone who is crude, messy, or foolish.

History

Sebastian Brant (1457–1521), a satirist, created Saint Grobian as the patron saint of bad manners in his famous poem Das Narrenschiff (1494). The poem, titled The Ship of Fools in English, describes the worship of this new saint.

Later, the character Grobian appears in other works from the same period.

Friedrich Dedekind (1524–1598) published a book titled Grobianus et Grobiana: sive, de morum simplicitate, libri tres in 1554 in Cologne. In this work, Grobian is a counselor who teaches people how to avoid bad manners, overeating, and drinking too much.

Dedekind’s book was translated into English and published in 1605 as The Schoole of Slovenrie: Or, Cato turned wrong side outward by someone named "R.F." In this version, the "Schoole" is imagined as a place where people are taught to grab the best food from shared dishes using greasy fingers. The book also claims that holding back the urge to urinate, fart, or vomit is harmful to health, so people are encouraged to do these things freely. This work influenced Thomas Dekker’s The Guls Horne-Booke (1609) and the seventeenth-century Icelandic rímur Grobbians rímur.

The German writer Melchior Meyr wrote a book titled Gespräche mit einem Grobian (1866).

Sebastian Brant’s allegory was translated into English by Alexander Barclay and Henry Watson as Ship of Fools in 1509. See also ship of fools.