Saint Corbinian (Latin: Corbinianus; French: Corbinien; German: Korbinian; c. 670 – 8 September c. 730 AD) was a Frankish bishop.

His opposition to the marriage of Duke Grimoald to his brother's widow, Biltrudis, caused Corbinian to go into exile for a time.

[6] 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.

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.

[3] Corbinian returned on the invitation of Grimoald's successor, Huebert,[8] and continued his apostolic labors at Freising until his own death in 730.

[10] The bear's submission and retreat can also be interpreted as Christianity's "taming" and "domestication" of the ferocity of paganism and, consequentially, the laying of a "[foundation] for a great civilization in the Duchy of Bavaria.

It appeared on the arms of Pope Benedict XVI, who first adopted the symbol when, still known as Joseph Ratzinger, he was appointed Archbishop of Freising-Munich in March 1977.

For Pope Benedict XVI, it also reminded him of the legend according to which one day St. Augustine, pondering the mystery of the Trinity, saw a child at the seashore playing with a shell, trying to put the water of the ocean into a little hole.