Born in Cap Français in Saint-Domingue (now Cap-Haïtien, Haiti) on October 27, 1740, as the son of a French father and Black Haitian mother, Jacques Bonnaud came to France while still young to avoid racism.

[8] In 1788, Bonnaud was called to Lyon by Archbishop Yves-Alexandre de Marbeuf, who made him one of his vicars general and assigned him the priories of Sermaize and Arnicourt.

[9] Bonnaud was the author of the archbishop's pastoral letter in 1789, alerting the faithful and calling on them to be vigilant and courageous in the face of imminent religious persecution during the French Revolution.

Bonnaud then settled in Paris, where he wrote pamphlets and tracts defending the rights of the Catholic Church and opposing the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which he refused to sign.

[1] Considered to have died a victim of anti-Catholic persecution, Bonnaud was declared a martyr alongside his companions and was beatified in 1926 by Pope Pius XI.