Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

Christianity reached the kingdom of Buganda, in today’s Uganda, in 1877 with Anglican missionaries and in 1879 with Catholic ones. The young king Mwanga II came to see the Christians at his court as a threat to his power, and between 1885 and 1887 he had many of them put to death. The first Catholic martyr, Joseph Mukasa, was beheaded and burned in November 1885.

Charles Lwanga, in charge of the royal pages, secretly baptized several of the boys and shielded them from the king. On 3 June 1886, at Namugongo, he and many others, Catholics and Anglicans, were burned alive; the youngest, Kizito, was about fourteen. Paul VI canonized twenty-two Catholic martyrs in 1964 and honored the Anglicans who died with them.