COLLIO, FRANCESCO. - Italian theologian, b. at Brusimpiano, parish of Arcisate, in the second half of the sixteenth century; d. at Milan in 1640. Having become an Oblate of SS. Ambrogio e Carlo in 1609, he was one of the first doctors of the Ambrosiana. In 1631 he was made canon and penitentiary of the Duomo. As a theologian he was praised by Lugo.
He published the theses defended before Cardinal Federico Borromeo and sixteen bishops on 7 May 1609 (Conclusiones in sacra theologia, Milan 1609), and two extensive monographs: De Sanguisae Christi (ibid. 1617) and De animabus paganorum (2 vols., ibid. 1622). In the latter, having first stated that pagans can do good and set forth the various ways in which God enlightens them, he discusses, on the basis of the Fathers, the salvation of the most celebrated among them.