Born around 1000, probably to a Hessian-Thuringian noble family, he was possibly educated in the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey, in Hesse.
[1] To strengthen the claims, he had a new vita written of Saint Boniface, on whose orders Fulda Abbey had been built in 744, and engaged Otloh of Sankt Emmeram to write it.
In Regensburg, Otloh had managed to pick up a copy of the so-called Karlsruhe Codex of the Boniface correspondence, which Egbert had ordered and sent to Pope Leo IX (Leo was interested in rewriting the saint's vita but died before he had the chance).
[1] Abbot Egbert was known for having enlarged the possessions of Fulda,[2] and for his zeal in building.
He rebuilt the neglected collegiate church on the nearby Frauenberg, just north of Fulda, into a Benedictine abbey, ca.