, Corbinian was born and baptised as
Waldegiso at
Châtres, near
Melun, in Frankish territory. He was named after his father, who may have died when Corbinian was an infant. Soon after his father's death, his mother Corbiniana renamed Waldegiso to "Corbinian", after herself. Nothing else is known of his childhood. The early source for Corbinian's life is the
Vita Corbiniani of Bishop
Arbeo of Freising. He lived in Châtres on the road to
Orléans as a
hermit for fourteen years, near a church dedicated to
Saint Germain. His reputation attracted students to him, which distracted him from his hermitage. His devotion to
Saint Peter the Apostle prompted a decision to make a journey to
Rome, accompanied by some of the disciples. While in Rome,
Pope Gregory II admonished him to use his talents to
evangelise Bavaria. Corbinian, who may already have been a bishop or who was so consecrated by Gregory, was sent to minister to
Grimoald, the Frankish
Duke of Bavaria. Corbinian probably arrived in Bavaria in 724. On a mountain near
Freising, where there was already a sanctuary, the saint erected a
Benedictine monastery and a school which, after his death, came to be governed by his brother Erembert. The monastery was dedicated to
Saint Vitus and later,
Saint Stephen, before becoming
Weihenstephan Abbey in the 11th century. In 738, when
Saint Boniface regulated the
ecclesial structure in the Duchy of Bavaria by creating four
dioceses to be governed by the
archbishop of Mainz, Erembert was chosen first
Bishop of Freising. Soon after settling, Corbinian denounced Grimoald's marriage to his brother's widow, Biltrudis, though Grimoald had already repented of his
incest. This incited his anger and the chagrin of his wife, who
excoriated Corbinian, labeling him a foreign interloper. Finally, she arranged to have him murdered. Corbinian fled Freising until Grimoald was killed and Biltrudis carried off by invaders in 725. and continued his apostolic labors at Freising until his own death in 730. Corbinian's body, buried at Merano, was translated to Freising in 769 by the aforementioned Bishop Arbeo, author of Corbinian's
vita, and is now entombed in
Freising Cathedral. == Corbinian's bear ==