Luigi Bilio

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Luigi Cardinal Bilio| dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Sabina (suburbicarian see)|

Luigi Maria Cardinal Bilio B (25 March 1826 - 30 January 1884) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and was among other things former Secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.

Luigi Maria Bilio was born in Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy. He joined the Congregation of the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Barnabites) when he was fourteen years old and professed in Genoa in 1842.

He was ordained in 1849 in Vercelli. After his ordaination he served as a Professor of Greek and philosophy at Collegio Ducale, Parma; and in Naples. He was Professor of philosophy, theology and canon law in Rome. He was elected assistant general of his order. He worked as a consultor of the Congregation of the Inquisition from 1864 and for the Congregation of the Index from 1865. He had an important role in the preparation of the Syllabus of Errors and of the encyclical, Quanta Cura by Pope Pius IX.

Cardinalate

He was created Cardinal-Priest of "San Lorenzo in Panisperna" by Pope Pius in the consistory of 22 June 1866. He participated in the First Vatican Council from 1869 until 1870.

Episcopate

He opted for the order of bishops and the suburbicarian see of Sabina on 22 December 1873. He was consecrated on January 12 the following year by Pope Pius IX. He participated in the conclave of 1878 that elected Pope Leo XIII. He was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation of Indulgences and Relics by Pope Leo in 1876. He also served as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites from 20 December 1876. Pope Leo also appointed him to serve as Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary on 18 October 1877, holding the position until his death. Before his death in 1884 he served as Secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office from January 1883.

He died in January 1884, his body was exposed in the church of "Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari", Rome; and buried in the tomb of his order in Campo Verano cemetery.