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, and later 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 in 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. In 1127, he led twelve monks to Franconia to settle the monastery of Ebrach, newly founded by local Frankish nobles Berno and Richwin von Eberau. Berno was an important retainer of the Würzburg prince-bishop Embricho. The first church was dedicated in 1134 by Bishop Emicho. 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.<ref name=Newman>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-aL9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23&dq=Ebrach+Abbey&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqmd2Y3sr8AhWRK1kFHZKRBH44ChDoAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=Ebrach%20Abbey&f=false Newman, Martha G., Cistercian Stories for Nuns and Monks: The Sacramental Imagination of Engelhard of Langheim", University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020, p. 23] </ref> 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, who succeeded in gaining the support not only of the bishops of Bamberg but of the local nobility. Adam was a close friend of Bernard of Clairvaux, and maintained contact with Hildegard of