Adam, originating from Cologne, is first recorded when entering the Cistercian monastery of Morimond Abbey in Burgundy.
After Abbot Arnold's death on January 3, 1126 Bernhard of Clairvaux wrote to Adam asking him to return to Morimond.
[1] 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.
He was well received at the court of Conrad III, whose wife, Gertrude of Sulzbach, and their young son, Friedrich von Rothenburg, were buried at Ebrach Abbey.
The latter added him to his first delegation to Pope Eugenius III, referring to him as the man of my trust, in ecclesiastic and worldly things.