Born
11 February 1535
Birthplace
Somma, near Milan, Italy
Pope from
5 December 1590
Pope until
15 October 1591
Died
15 October 1591
Who he was
The son of a Milanese senator who became a cardinal after his wife's death, he was Bishop of Cremona, attended the Council of Trent, and was a close friend of St Charles Borromeo and St Philip Neri. He did not seek the papacy and wept when he was elected after a conclave of more than two months. He was in poor health and reigned for only ten months.
What he is remembered for
He backed the Catholic League in France against Henry of Navarre. He raised St Camillus de Lellis's Fathers of a Good Death (the Camillians) to a religious order, forbade betting on papal elections, and ordered that the native slaves of the Philippines be set free.
Sources
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