Antonio María Barbieri, OFMCap (October 12, 1892 – July 6, 1979), born Alfredo Barbieri, was an

Uruguayan Uruguayans () are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizen ...

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He served as

Archbishop of Montevideo The Archdiocese of Montevideo () is an archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in Uruguay. History Erected as the Apostolic Vicariate of Montevideo by Pope Gregory XVI on 14 August 1832, the vicariate was promoted to the Diocese of ...

from 1940 to 1976, and was elevated to the rank of cardinal.

Biography

Alfredo Barbieri was born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

to José and Mariana (née Romano) Barbieri. He had a hesitant start to his ecclesiastical career as his parents were strongly opposed to his becoming a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. Before entering the

consecrated life Consecrated life (also known as religious life) is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life (religious and sec ...

. Barbieri worked as an

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

clerk."The New Cardinals"
''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

''. December 22, 1958. Archived fro
the original
September 30, 2007. He joined the

Order of Friars Minor Capuchin The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; postnominal abbr. OFMCap) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFMObs, now OFM), the ...

on December 8, 1913, and was later sent to

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Italy, to continue his

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

in 1915. Receiving the

habit A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...

on the following September 8, Barbieri made his

solemn vows A solemn vow is a certain vow ("a deliberate and free promise made to God about a possible and better good") taken by an individual after completion of the novitiate in a Catholic religious institute. It is solemn insofar as the Church recogni ...

and took the

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

''Antonio María''. He then attended Capuchin houses of study and the

Pontifical Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private university, private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyo ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Barbieri was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

on December 17, 1921, and obtained his doctorate in theology from the Gregorian on July 9, 1923. He declined a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

ship at a prestigious university in Rome and returned to Uruguay, where he served as a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

in the local Capuchin friary. He was elected

superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places * Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lak ...

of this mission in 1931 and re-elected five years later. On October 6, 1936, Barbieri was appointed

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of Montevideo and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

Macra Macra is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin and about northwest of Cuneo. Macra borders the following municipalities: Celle di Macra, Marmora, Sampeyre, San Da ...

. He was consecrated on the following November 8 by Archbishop Filippo, with Archbishop Giovanni Aragone and Bishop Alfredo Violas serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churche ...

. Barbieri succeeded Aragone as

on November 20, 1940. Besides his skill in

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

, he was also a noted historian, violinist, and essayist. Barbieri was a close associate of

Carlos Carmelo Vasconcellos Motta Carlos Carmelo Vasconcellos Motta (16 July 1890 – 18 September 1982) was a long-serving cardinal. Until Eugênio de Araújo Sales surpassed him in 2005, he was the longest-serving Brazilian cardinal, and during his cardinalate the Church in B ...

when the first

episcopal conference An episcopal conference, often also called a bishops’ conference or conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The fir ...

s of Latin American bishops began in the mid-1950s.

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

created Barbieri

cardinal priest A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. Ca ...

of S. Crisogno in the

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church *Consistor ...

of December 15, 1958, and he thus became the first Uruguayan cardinal. He was one of the cardinal electors in the

1963 conclave A papal conclave was held from 19 to 21 June 1963 to elect a new pope to succeed John XXIII, who had died on 3 June 1963. Of the 82 eligible cardinal electors, all but two attended. On the sixth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Giovanni M ...

, participated in the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

(1962–1965), and during the 1960s was recognized for his long periods of service as a theologian and historian with his promotion to the ''Instituto Histórico y Geográfico del Uruguay'' (Historical and Geographical Institute of Uruguay). Barbieri resigned as Montevideo's archbishop on November 17, 1976, after thirty-five years of service. He died on July 6, 1979, at age 86.

References

External links

Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbieri, Antonio Maria 1892 births 1979 deaths Bishops appointed by Pope Pius XI 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Uruguay Clergy from Montevideo Capuchin cardinals Uruguayan cardinals Capuchins Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Participants in the Second Vatican Council Cardinals created by Pope John XXIII Burials at Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral Uruguayan people of Italian descent Members of the Uruguayan Academy of Language Uruguayan Roman Catholic archbishops Roman Catholic archbishops of Montevideo Uruguayan expatriates in Italy