Sante Uberto Barbieri was a bishop of The Methodist Church, elected in 1949. A native of Italy, he was elected Bishop by the Latin American Central Conference of the Church. He was assigned the work of the Church in Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay. Barbieri held bachelor's, master's and divinity degrees from Southern Methodist University. He also held a master's degree from Emory University. Prior to his election to the episcopacy, Rev. Barbieri served in Brazil and Argentina. In 1954 Bishop Barbieri also was one of six presidents elected to seven-year terms in the World Council of Churches. Life Bishop Sante Uberto Barbieri was born in Dueville, Province of Vicenza, North of Italy, in 1902. His parents were Sante Barbieri and María Luigia Zanzotto. In his childhood he lived in Switzerland and in Germany; when he was 9 years old, his parents moved to Brazil. There he attended elementary and high school. His passion for freedom guided him to get in touch with the Methodists. When he was 20 years old, he joined the Methodist Church as one of its members, in Passo Fundo, RGS. In 1923 at the tie of the Meeting of the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, he was accepted as pastor of the Annual Conference of the Southern Methodist Church in Brazil. In 1924 he married Odette de Oliveira, from Minas Gerais; they became the parents of four children: 1 daughter and 3 sons. The same year he married Ms. de Oliveira, he started studies at the Theological Methodist Seminary in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In 1929, in company of his wife and his two elder children, he travelled to the US for postgraduate studies at the So. Methodist University of Dallas, TX and at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, obtaining B.A., MA. and B.D. degrees. In addition to the academic degrees he obtained at the mentioned Universities, he was awarded with the Distinguished Alumni Award and the LLD Honorary degrees from the Southern Methodist University as well as Doctor of Human Letters Honorary degree by Emory University. He returned to Brazil in 1933 where he was appointed pastor of the Central Methodist Church in Porto Alegre as well as Professor and Dean of the Theological Methodist Seminary of Southern Brazil in the same city, and afterwards, when the Seminary was transferred, to Passo Fundo. In 1939 he was transferred to the River Plate region (Argentina and Uruguay)