Imre was the only surviving son of St. Stephen of Hungary and Blessed Gisela of Bavaria, and was raised by his father's tutor St. Gerard of Csanád — a Venetian Benedictine — for both kingship and sanctity. Stephen wrote for his son the Admonitions (Libellus de institutione morum) — one of the earliest medieval royal handbooks of Christian governance.
Married to a Byzantine princess (whose name is uncertain), Imre is reported by the early Vita to have agreed with his wife on a vow of perpetual continence within marriage — the early Hungarian church saw in the agreement a sign of his sanctity. He was destined to succeed his father.
On September 2, 1031, riding to hunt boar in the Bihar region, Imre was killed by a wild boar — leaving his father heirless. Stephen's grief was profound and shaped the spiritual texture of the last seven years of his reign. Canonised jointly with his father by Gregory VII in 1083 (and with his old tutor St. Gerard of Csanád in the same ceremony).