Saint Charles Lwanga and the Ugandan Martyrs

Life story

French missionaries of the White Fathers reached the kingdom of Buganda, now part of Uganda, in the late 1870s. Some young men and boys at the court of King Mwanga II, notably the royal pages, learned the faith and asked for baptism. Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, the chief of the pages, was the most respected among them.

Mukasa was beheaded on 15 November 1885 after, according to the accounts, he protested the king's killing of Bishop Hannington, an Anglican bishop. Charles Lwanga, born around 1860, took his place in looking after the pages and teaching them the catechism. He is remembered as the one who shielded the boys from demands of the king that Christians could not accept.

On 3 June 1886 the king ordered these men taken to Namugongo, the place of execution. Charles Lwanga and many others were burned alive. The martyrs included Anglican believers as well, and by the records the executions were spread over the years from 1885 to 1887; the youngest, Kizito, was about thirteen or fourteen.

Paul VI canonised the twenty-two Catholic martyrs on 18 October 1964. Charles Lwanga is remembered by the Church on 3 June and is regarded as a patron of Catholic youth in Africa. The site of the executions at Namugongo became a national shrine. Paul VI visited Uganda in 1969, the first pope to set foot in Africa, and prayed at the shrine of the martyrs.

Works and witness

• Took over the care and catechesis of the royal pages after Mukasa
• Burned alive at Namugongo on 3 June 1886
• The group included Kizito, a boy of about 13 or 14
• Twenty-two Catholics were canonised in 1964

Patron of

Catholic youth of Africa

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
• Acta Apostolicae Sedis, canonisation of the Uganda Martyrs, 1964

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.