Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a renowned biblical scholar and former archbishop of Milan, died Aug. 31 at the age of 85 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. After six years in the Holy Land, where he had retired to continue his studies biblical scholar, in 2008 he returned to Italy and was treated at Gallarate for Parkinson’s disease that affected him for 16 years. However he continued his work and released several books and until recently held a column in the newspaper “Il Corriere della Sera” of Milan. In last June, Pope Benedict XVI met him in private during his visit in the Archdiocese.

Born in Orbassano, near Turin, Italy, Feb. 15, 1927, Carlo Maria Martini entered the Society of Jesus in 1944, was ordained a priest July 13, 1952, and took his final vows as a Jesuit in 1962. The cardinal, a biblical scholar, never held a parish post. With doctorates in theology and biblical studies, he was a seminary professor in Chieri, Italy, 1958-1961; professor and later rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, 1969-1978; and rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University from July 1978 until his December 1979 appointment to Milan.