PANIGAROLA, FRANCESCO. - Orator and controversialist of the Order of Friars Minor Observant, b. in Milano on 6 Jan. 1548, d. at Asti on 31 May 1594.
Of a wealthy family, he studied law at Pavia and Bologna; in 1567 he took the Franciscan habit in Firenze; at Padova, Pisa, and Parigi he pursued philosophical and theological studies. In 1573 he began an intense and highly celebrated career as a preacher throughout Italy, which did not prevent him from fulfilling the duties of custodian of the province of Milano and general definitor of his Order. S. Carlo Borromeo sent him to Rhaetia in 1583 to combat the spread of the Protestant Reformation there; Sisto V appointed him bishop of Grisopolis and suffragan to the bishop of Ferrara in 1586, entrusted him with the diocese of Asti the following year, and shortly afterward sent him to Parigi to assist the cardinal legate Arrigo Gaetano in his work of supporting the League against Enrico IV, which lasted until 1590.
Such activity did not prevent P. from composing numerous works, not only of sacred eloquence but also of theological and philosophical polemic, together with certain historical memoirs concerning events which he had occasion to witness, and a
compendium of the first book of Cesare Baronio’s Annali ecclesiastici (Roma 1590).