St. Charles Lwanga and Companions

Who they were

The martyrs of Uganda were young men and boys, pages and officials of the royal court of Buganda, many of them catechumens converted within the previous months, killed between 1885 and 1887 when the kabaka Mwanga turned on the new faith. The precipitating offence, stated once and plainly: the Christian pages, led by the court's master of pages Charles Lwanga, refused the king's sexual demands and shielded the younger boys from them, and their catechism classes continued in defiance.

On the death march to Namugongo, Lwanga baptized the youngest, Kizito, who was thirteen and is recorded laughing and encouraging the others. On 3 June 1886 Lwanga and his companions were burned alive at Namugongo, praying aloud. Twenty two Catholics were canonized in 1964, honoured alongside the Anglican martyrs who died with them. Paul VI's pilgrimage to Namugongo in 1969 was the first papal visit to sub-Saharan Africa, and the shrine now draws millions each June, among the largest annual Christian gatherings on earth.

Why people turn to St. Charles Lwanga and Companions

African and African American Catholics. Catechists, whose patron Lwanga formally is. And everyone who has protected a younger or weaker person at cost, which is the patronage inside the story.

How to ask their intercession

For catechists by name, the parish's least thanked office, and for the courage of the older child who steps between.