Ven. Jean Louis Bonnard

A French missionary and martyr, b. 1 March, 1824 at Saint-Christôt-en-Jarret ( Diocese of Lyons ); beheaded 30 April, 1852. After a collegiate course at Saint Jodard, he entered the seminary of Lyons, which he left at the age of twenty two, to complete his theological studies at the Seminary of the Foreign Missions in Paris. From Nantes, where he was ordained, he sailed for the missions of Western Tongking and reached there in May, 1850. In 1851 he was put in charge of two parishes there; but as early as 21 March, 1852, he was arrested and cast into prison. Sentence of death was pronounced against him and was executed immediately upon receipt of its confirmation by the king (30 April, 1852). His remains were thrown into the river, but recovered by Christians and sent by them to the Seminary of Foreign Missions. Bonnard has been declared Venerable by the Church.