NINGUARDA, Feliciano. — Dominican theologian and bishop, born in Morbegno (Valtellina) in 1524, died in Como on 5 January 1595. He taught in Vienna and served as procurator for the archbishop of Salzburg at the Council of Trent (1562–63). There he distinguished himself for his prudence and diplomatic skills; for this reason Pius V sent him to Germany with the task of visiting bishops and princes and urging the implementation of conciliar decrees.
In 1573 the Master General of the Order appointed him visitor of all Dominican convents in Bohemia and Austria, while the Pope extended his faculties as visitor and reformer to all mendicant houses in Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia.
The Catholic restoration in those regions owes much to his prudent and energetic work. On 25 February 1577 he was named bishop of Scala near Amalfi. The following year he was sent as apostolic nuncio to Upper Germany, where for five years (1578–83) he devoted himself with courage and constancy to the arduous task of reform. In 1583, upon his return to Italy, he was appointed bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti; in 1586 he was assigned as nuncio to Switzerland, and in 1588 he was transferred to the see of Como.
His most important works are in pastoral theology and can be considered commentaries on the decrees of the Council of Trent: *Manuale parochorum* (Ingolstadt 1582); *Furchtirdion de censuris* (ibid. 1583); *Manuale visitatorium* (Rome 1586; Italian trans. *Atti della visita pastorale diocesana di F. N.*, 1589–92, 2 vols., Como 1589–92).