Sts. Charles Lwanga and Companions
Martyrs · d. 1886
“I am about to be burned alive for following the law of God. But I want you to know that He will rescue me. Even if He does not rescue my body, He will rescue my soul.”
Attributed to St. Charles Lwanga before his execution, Namugongo, June 3, 1886
They were teenagers and young men, royal pages serving in the court of King Mwanga II of Uganda. Most of them were new to the faith, barely catechumens. And when the king came for them, they didn't run.
King Mwanga demanded things from his pages that no one should demand. These young men refused him, and they refused him because of what they now believed. That made them a threat. So in 1886, he had them arrested.
What followed was a brutal, drawn-out persecution. Thirteen of them, including Charles Lwanga, were marched to Namugongo Hill and burned alive on June 3, 1886. Charles was wrapped in reeds and set on fire. Witnesses said he died without cursing anyone. The others, nine more companions, were killed at different locations by various forms of execution, torture included.
Twenty-two men in total. The youngest was around fifteen. Some were still preparing for baptism when they died. The Church considers them baptized by blood.
Pope Paul VI canonized all twenty-two of them in 1964, the first canonization of sub-Saharan African martyrs in the modern era. Their feast is celebrated across Africa and beyond every June 3.
They weren't soldiers or bishops. They were young guys who had just found something worth dying for, and when the moment came, they held on to it.