REITHMAYR, FRANZ XAVER. – New Testament exegete, born in Illkofen (Regensburg) to poor artisans on 16 March 1809, died in Munich on 26 January 1872. Ordained a priest in 1832, he taught religion in Regensburg and later in Munich, where he attended the lectures of A. Döllinger (v.) and J. A. Möhler (v.), receiving his doctorate in theology in 1836. From 1837 an extraordinary professor, in 1841 he became ordinary professor of New Testament exegesis (the first to hold this chair in Munich).
Möhler stimulated in him a love for patristics and for the dogmatic content of Sacred Scripture. Volume I of Möhler’s Patrologie (1840) is half his work. In 1842 he courageously defended the Catholic position against the mythicism of D. STRAUSS, D (v.) in the Historisch-politische Blätter. Other works include: Commentar zu dem Briefe an die Römer (Regensburg 1847: rich in patristic information, but diffuse and philologically inaccurate); Nov. Test. Graece
et Latine (Munich 1847: an edition for students, dependent on C. Lachmann); Einleitung in die canonischen Bücher des Neuen Bundes (Regensburg 1852); Commentar zum Briefe an die Galater (Munich 1865). His particular merit lies in his direction of the Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, from 1868 until his death. A posthumous work was edited by V. THALHOFER, VALENTIN, Lehrbuch der biblischen Hermeneutik (Kempten 1874), in which (pp. VII–XLVII) his biography is found.
His position during the sad decade of his Faculty (1861–71) has not yet been entirely clarified. Although he was opposed to Döllinger’s liberalizing theology, it seems that R. too was opposed to the Seminary of Speyer; in 1869 he even signed the Gutachten of the majority of the Faculty against papal infallibility. Nevertheless, he submitted immediately after the definition.