Émile Barillon

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Émile Marie Luc Alphonse Barillon MEP (18 October 1860 – 27 July 1935) was a French Catholic missionary who served as Bishop of Malacca-Singapore from 1904 to 1933. Born in Chartres, France, he was orphaned and raised by a schoolmaster and his wife. At 12 he studied at Chartres Cathedral and later joined the Paris Foreign Missions Society, being ordained priest on 20 September 1884. He went to Malaya that year, learning Chinese dialects and serving Chinese communities in Singapore, Perak and Penang, where he built the Church of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows in 1888. He also helped in Batu Gajah and Ipoh, where he built St Michael’s Church (1890–1892). In 1892 he returned to France as a professor of moral theology and director of aspirants; in 1902 he became Superior of the seminary at Bièvres. After Bishop René Fée died in January 1904, Barillon was appointed Bishop of Malacca-Singapore and was consecrated on 18 September 1904 in Paris. In Singapore he worked at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, fundraising for new churches, including the Church of the Sacred Heart (opened 1910). In 1925 he founded the seminary of St Francis Xavier at Serangoon. His health declined in the 1920s; he was assisted by coadjutor Father Perrichan. He resigned in 1933 and became Titular Bishop of Thaumacus. He died on 27 July 1935 and was buried in Singapore.