He was born of noble parents at Wolkersdorf im Weinviertel, and entered the monastery of Admont about 1267.
In 1297 he was elected Abbot of Admont, and after ruling thirty years he resigned this dignity when he was almost eighty years old, in order to spend the remainder of his life in prayer and study.
Engelbert was one of the most learned men of his times, and there was scarcely any branch of knowledge to which his versatile pen did not contribute its share.
[1] The best known of Engelbert's works is his historico-political treatise De ortu, progressu et fine Romani imperii, which was written during the reign of Emperor Henry VII (1308–1313).
He bewails the gradual decline of both imperial and papal authority, prophesies the early coming of Antichrist and with it the ruin of the Holy Roman Empire and a wholesale desertion of the Holy See.