In 1289, at the age of twelve, she entered the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Engelthal, which was a community of nuns of the Dominican Second Order outside the city, in the Burgraviate of Nuremberg.
About this time, she began experiencing frequent religious visions, which her confessor, the friar Conrad of Füssen, encouraged her to write down.
In 1338, she began a correspondence with the secular priest Henry of Nördlingen, who was an enthusiastic propagator of mystic spirituality and literature.
Around 1340, Ebner started compiling the Book of Sisters (Schwesternbuch), a record of the mystical visions and life experiences of the other nuns in her monastery, called Von der genaden uberlast (Of the Burden of Grace).
In 1351 she was finally visited for the first time by her long-time confidant, Henry of Nördlingen, who spent three weeks as a visitor to the monastery.