He joined the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Barnabites)[1] when he was 14 years old and professed religious vows in Genoa in 1842.

After his ordination, Bilio served as a professor of Greek and philosophy at the Collegio Ducale in Parma; and in Naples.

He had an important role in the preparation of the Syllabus of Errors and of the encyclical Quanta cura of Pope Pius IX.

Bilio was created Cardinal Priest, with the titular church of San Lorenzo in Panisperna by Pope Pius IX in the consistory of 22 June 1866.

[citation needed] Biglio died in January 1884, his body lay in state in the Church of Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari in Rome and was buried in the crypt of his Order in the Campo Verano cemetery.