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. 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. 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, ==See also==