NINGUARDA, FELICIANO. - Dominican theologian and bishop, b. at Morbegno (Valtellina) in 1524, d. at Como on 5 January 1595. He taught at Vienna and was procurator of the archbishop of Salzburg at the Council of Trent (1562-63). Here he distinguished himself for his prudence and his diplomatic qualities;
for this reason Pius V sent him to Germany with the task
of visiting bishops and princes and urging the implementation of the
conciliar decrees.
In 1573 the general of the Order also appointed him
visitor of all the Dominican convents of Bohemia and
Austria, while the Pope extended his faculty as
visitor and reformer over all the religious houses of the
mendicant orders of Austria, Bohemia and Moravia.
The Catholic restoration in those regions owes much to his prudent and energetic work. On 25 February
1577 he was appointed bishop of Scala near Amalfi. The following
year he was sent as apostolic nuncio to Upper Germany, which, for five years (1578-83), he traversed, devoting himself
with courage and constancy to the hard work of reform. In
1583, having returned to Italy, he was appointed bishop of S. Agata
dei Goti; in 1586 he was assigned as nuncio to Switzerland, in
1588 he was transferred to the episcopal see of Como.
The most important among his works are of pastoral
theology, and they can be considered commentaries on the decrees
of the Council of Trent: Manuale parschorum (Ingolstadt
1582); Euchiridion de censuris (ibid. 1585); Manuale visitatorum (Rome 1589; Italian trans. Atti della visita pastorale
diocesana di F. N., 1589-93, 2 vols., Como 1892-93).
Bibliography3 works
Alfonso D'Amato