LEONROD, FRANZ LEOPOLD von. - Bishop of Eichstätt, b. at Ansbach on 26 Aug. 1827, d. at Eichstätt on 5 Sept. 1905. He was a vigorous defender of the rights of the Church in the struggle of the Kulturkampf. His curriculum vitae is as follows: priest in 1850, assistant curate in the town of Reichenhall in 1854, preacher in Eichstätt cathedral in 1856, parish priest at S. Zeno near Reichenhall in 1859, bishop of Eichstätt on 13 Nov. 1866 (consecrated on 19 March 1867).
A resolute supporter of papal infallibility, he conducted with great energy the struggle against the Lutz ministry and assisted the Prussian bishops affected by the Kulturkampf struggle. In his diocese L. promoted the restoration of Eichstätt cathedral, the revision of the Instructio pastoralis Eystettensis (1902), and the foundation of a diocesan museum. He drafted the well-known Memorandum of the Bavarian bishops (1888) and wrote anonymously, in 1873, Gespräche über den Syllabus and, in 1905, Verhandlungen des bayer. Episkopats mit der Staatsregierung 1850-59 über den Vollzug des Konkordats. His writings were collected in 1892 by L. Morgott and published together with a biography.