Obituary Notice
This obituary notice has been digitally processed from a scanned archival document. Some words may be imperfectly rendered.
Bp. Leonard Baumbach (1855-1915) LEONARD BAUMBAGH., Bishop of Nicopolis. The Baumbach family traces its ancestry to the time of the Crudades. It was St. Glizabeth of Hungary who bestowed estates on the family in the early years of the L3th Century in-recognition of their support for her cause when she was beifig severely harrassed after the death of her husband, Ludwig of Thuringia, in 1227. Leonard was the son of General de Baumbach, a protestant, and was born in Ludwigsburg, Germany, on llth June 1855. Whilevpreparing in Geneva to enter the jiplomatic service he became a Catholic and was received into the Church on lst. farch 1875. Two years later he gave up his projected career and trained for the sriesthood in the Collegio Capranica in Rome. . After his ordination Pope Leo XIII wanted him to enter the Acamzdia dei Nobili icclesiastici, but he preferred to remain a simple diocesan priest. For several rears he served as secretary to Cardinal Mermillod, Bishop of Geneva, and in that rapacity accompanied the Cardinal on his visitation of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. jn his return to Geneva he was appointed, curate in Lancy and later in Lusanne. There seems to be no record ®f how or when he came into contact with the she Passionists, but he entered the novitiate in Broadway in 1896 and was professed mn 28th April 1897.“ He spent his first” years in Highgate, and in the community: were Cyril Barker, Raymund Saunders and Herbert Greenan (students at the tine), thom our, older brebhren will remember well. Working on the parish in Hi¢hpate, Fr eonard.seems to. have beerf*ta notable confessor snd spiritual director, bub his special ministry was to the. poor, the sick and the handicapped whom he loved and terved with great devotion. In 1905 he was appoti ed Restor at Broudway where avain ho was noted for his ove for the poor and the humble. He was still Rector there when his appointment as -ishop of Nicopolis was made known in 1910. He was consecrated bishop in Highgate on 7th April 1910, the consecrating prelates being Archbishop Bourne of Westminster, shop Ilsley of Bifmingham and Dr. Fenton, titular bishop of Amayla. Bishop Baumbach died in Rome on 23rd August 1915.
Source: Obituary Notices, Provincial Archive, St Joseph's Province. Passionist Congregation.