Adam von Ebrach

Adam of Ebrach (late 11th century – 23 November 1167) was a Cistercian monk and the first abbot of Ebrach Abbey in the area of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany. He later became the founding abbot of Langheim Abbey.

Biography Adam, originating from Cologne, is first recorded when entering the Cistercian monastery of Morimond Abbey in Burgundy. He is probably the monk Adam, who belonged to a group led by Abbot Arnold the German, who left Morimond Monastery in 1124 to found a new monastery in the Holy Land. After Abbot Arnold's death on January 3, 1126 Bernhard of Clairvaux wrote to Adam asking him to return to Morimond. The confidence with which Bernard assumed that the rest of the monks would follow Adam points to Adam's gift of leadership.

Adam seems to have led the monastery with great success, so that six daughter monasteries were founded with his influence, in Franconia, Styria and Lower Bavaria:in 1129 in Rein, the oldest Cistercian monastery in the world that still exists today, in 1132 in Heilsbronn and in Langheim, in 1145 at Nepomuk, in 1146 the monastery of Aldersbach near Passau and in 1156 the monastery of Bildhausen near Münnerstadt in Bavaria. As abbot, he made yearly visits to the monasteries founded from Ebrach. He would also travel to the order's annual General Chapter at Cîteaux.

Three brothers from the city of Bamberg made a gift of the estate of Langheim to Otto I, bishop of Bamberg, who in 1132 offered it to Adam on condition that it should be used for the establishment of a new monastery of the order. The first stone was laid on 1 August 1132. The abbey, like Ebrach, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Nicholas. The first abbot was Adam,