He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is September 20.
He was probably born to a noble family of Milan and he studied in Rome.
He was elected bishop of Milan in 465, and he participated to a council which is identified by scholars as the Roman synod of November 19, 465, held in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore under the presidency of Pope Hilarius.
[2] In 466 Benignus probably consecrated the elected bishop Epiphanius of Pavia, and he had a part in the attempts to settle the dispute between Anthemius and the barbarian leader Ricimer.
[1] A late tradition, supported only by a signet presumably found in 1582 in the urn containing his remains, associates Benignus with the Milan's family of the Bossi.