NINGUARDA, FELICIANO

Italian Dominican, theologian, writer, and bishop; b. Morbegno (Sondrio), 1524; d. Como, 1595. In 1554 he was appointed vicar-general of the Order, and later professor of theology at the University of Vienna. He was invited by the Archbishop of Salzburg to be his procurator at the third session of the Council of trent (1562–63). Then he was entrusted with implementing the reform decrees of Trent in visitations of the religious houses of the mendicant orders in Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia. At the same time, as papal commissioner, he worked toward the reform of the Diocese of Salzburg and convoked a provincial synod in 1569. He was made bishop of Scala (Salerno) in 1577, and shortly after was appointed apostolic nuncio to Bavaria, where he served until 1583. He was transferred to the episcopal see of Santa Agata dei Goti (Benevento) in 1583, and, finally in 1588, to that of Como, his native diocese, where he died. His works include the Defensio fidei maiorum nostrorum (Antwerp 1575); Manuale parochorum (Ingolstadt 1582); Enchiridion de censuris, irregularitate et privilegiis (Ingolstadt 1583); and the Manuale visitatorum (Rome 1589).

Bibliography: j. quÉtif and j. Échard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum (New York 1959) 2:313–314. k. schellhass, Der Dominikaner Feliciano Ninguarda und die Gegenreformation in Süddeutschland und Österreich, 1560–1583 (Rome 1930). a. walz, I Domenicani al Concilio di Trento (Rome 1961).

[a. l. redigonda]