 He was assigned to the Mission of Siam by the Missions Étrangères de Paris and arrived in Singapore on 29 October 1839 at the age of 26.Father Beurel had come as a parish priest for the Roman Catholic chapel on Bras Basah Road.When Bishop Jean-Paul-Hilaire-Michel Courvezy talked of extending the chapel because it was getting too small, Father Beurel suggested that a church be built elsewhere so that the current site could be used for a school for boys.