He was a hermit, very popular and highly esteemed, who lived in the 11th century in a wood near Passau, Passau in Italian, the enchanting Bavarian city stretched out like the bow of a ship on the V-shaped confluence of the Inn in Danube; just at the point where the two large and solemn rivers that bathe the two sides of the town meet, a third river, the Ilz, flows into those waters, helping to make the place truly suggestive.

Passau - in whose Gothic cathedral there is one of the largest organs in the world, full of 17,000 pipes that every Sunday morning make the majesty and charm of their sound heard in a public concert - was the episcopal see since 739, and to the left of the Danube, on an outcrop dominating the city, the Oberhaus fortress (18th century), residence of the bishops, still stands.

Prone to pity and solitary life, he could have as a master of the spirit a pious Armenian hermit, named Gregory, ex-bishop eager for solitude and perfection, who had retired to the Bavarian forest to prepare for death.

Soon the hermit saint was surrounded by the esteem and affection of all; but the great veneration of which he became the object and his own virtues aroused the envy of a man who for some time had subtly associated with him, making believe that he wanted to lead under his guidance that hard existence, and that on the night between 13 and 14 January 1100 killed him barbarously, hiding his body under the snow and immediately leaving the country.

According to another tradition, that wretch killed Engelmaro to take possession of the treasures he supposed he had: but he found nothing, since the good hermit distributed all the offerings he received to the poor.