Luigi de Magistris nobile dei conti of Castella and Belvedere,[1] was born on 23 February 1926 in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, in an aristocratic piedmontese family as the youngest of eight children of the renowned physician[2] Don Edmondo de Magistris, Count of Castella and Belvedere, and Donna Agnese Ballero.

[10] In the 1980s he had raised objections to the proposed beatification of Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei,[11] and he publicly opposed the canonization when it occurred in 2002, which may explain why he was replaced so quickly at the Penitentiary.

[5] The omission of De Magistris when Pope John Paul II announced the names of 33 new cardinals on 28 September 2003 "caused surprise".

[12][13][14] Instead Pope John Paul II sent him into retirement on 4 October, naming Cardinal James Stafford the new Major Penitentiary.

[17] At the consistory, he was appointed Cardinal-Deacon of the titular church of Santissimi Nomi di Gesù e Maria in Via Lata.