Roman Catholic Archbishop. Born in Villa San Carlo, Valgreghentino, to a family of bourgeois extraction responsible for the spinning of silk, Cesare Orsenigo was ordained priest by Cardinal Andrea Carlo Ferrari on July 5, 1896. Assigned to the parish of San Fedele in Milan where he remained until 1922, during this period he also taught at the Istituto Alfieri, a private school for the daughters of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie of Milan. Appointed canon of the Reverend Chapter of the Cathedral of Milan in 1912, he was assigned to work for the Opera dei Cappellani dell'Emigrazione in 1921. Meanwhile he carried out numerous assignments outside the parish on behalf of Cardinal Ferrari, becoming censor and examiner of the ecclesiastical synod, as well as representing the board of the Opera degli Asili Infantili Raggruppati of Milan and serving as member of the Consigli della Provvidenza Materna, of the Pro Orfani Infanti and of the Opera Bonomelli. Director of the Società delle Dame di San Vincenzo, he founded the Allieve della Carità and the Opera Pia Catena for the care of the sick, who were sent over for free to Salsomaggiore for treatment. The hospice, constructed for such purpose, was an imposing structure, able to accommodate up to one thousand patients a year. Appointed commendatore dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia in appreciation of his philanthropic activities on August 7, 1921, at forty nine years of age, Orsenigo was named apostolic nuncio to The Netherlands by Pope Pius XI, a close friend of his, who had been elected to the papacy four months earlier. Their tight relation dated back in fact to the turn of the century, when Orsenigo was undergoing studies for his doctorate in theology at the theological faculty of Milan and attending the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, came to know Achille Ratti, the future pontiff, who was later to become prefect of the library itself, eventually collaborating together in the preparation of the review 'San Carlo Borromeo nel terzo Centenario della Canonizzazione 1610-1910', established at the request of Cardinal Ferrari. Receiving his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Ptolemais in Libya from Cardinal Pietro Gasparri on June 29, 1922, Orsenigo was transferred to the apostolic nunciature of Hungary on June 2, 1925, where he was decorated with the Order of Merit. Following the retirement of Archbishop Alberto Vassallo di Torregrossa, Orsenigo was named his successor as apostolic nuncio in Germany on April 25, 1930. While Germany would not allow the Pope to appoint a nuncio in occupied Poland, Orsenigo extended his duties to the said country and although he privately protested on the situation with the the German government, his objection had no noticeable effect. With his figure remaining somewhat shrouded like that of Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna due to his role with the Nazis, Pius XII never replaced him, with historians later presenting the fact that a new nuncio may not have been accepted by the Nazis and the Vatican would have thus lost communication with the German church. Considered to have been more concerned about anti-church policies rather than of aiding the Jews, on February 8, 1945, prior to the end of the Second World War, Orsenigo moved to Eichstätt in Bavaria after the nunciature in Berlin was destroyed due to bombardments. With the nunciature loosing its official status in May 1945 following the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Allied Control Council allowed Orsenigo to remain in Eichstätt. It was there he died unexpectedly on April 1, 1946, leaving his secretary, Monsignor Carlo Colli as the only remaining link between Pius XII and the German church. American authorities had Orsenigo's body transported back to his native Italy, where it was interred in the cemetery of Olginate following the celebration of a requiem mass presided by Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster OSB. His grave survives to this day, having been recently restored after its monument entered a poor condition with the passing of time.