Émile Marie Luc Alphonse Barillon

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.

Early life Barillon was born on 18 October 1860 in Chartres, France. He was orphaned as a child and adopted by a schoolmaster and his wife. At aged 12 he received teaching at Chartres Cathedral, and then joined the seminary at Chartres where he received minor orders. He later joined the Paris Foreign Missions Society where he was ordained as a priest on 20 September 1884.

Career Soon after his ordination in 1884, Barillon was advised of his posting to Malaya and arrived in Singapore later that year. There he learned Chinese dialects, and from 1886 to 1892 he served the Chinese communities in Singapore, Perak and in Penang where he was parish priest at the Church of the Assumption in George Town. Whilst in Penang, he acquired land in Macalister Road and built a small house and the Church of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows to cater to Chinese Catholics which he inaugurated in 1888. The following year, he went to Batu Gajah to assist Father Allard, and then went to Ipoh where he again acquired land and built St Michael's Church where he served as parish priest from 1890 to 1892.