The Martyrs of Uganda

Anglican missionaries from Britain came to the kingdom of Buganda first, and the Catholic White Fathers followed two years later (Paul VI, Homily of 18 October 1964 par. 4). King Mutesa, who had received them, died in October 1884, and his son Mwanga II succeeded him (Mackay of Uganda p. 467).

The first deaths came within months: the Anglican missionary Alexander Mackay wrote that on 30 January 1885 three Christian youths were mutilated and burned alive for no crime but that they were learning from the missionaries (Mackay of Uganda p. 257). His colleague Robert Ashe names them, Seruwanga, Kakumba and the boy Lugalama, and dates Lugalama’s death to 31 January (Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 143–147). In October the Anglican bishop James Hannington was seized in Busoga on his way to Buganda (Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 181–195). His diary, as Ashe prints it, ends on 29 October, and Ashe tells that the king’s messengers then had him speared to death with his porters (Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 181–195). Mackay, who does not name him, reports that the head of the king’s personal servants told Mwanga that it was wrong to kill the bishop and was burned that day (Mackay of Uganda p. 268). The Catholic bishops of Uganda record that Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, the king’s major-domo, was killed and burned on 15 November 1885 (Uganda Episcopal Conference, The Uganda Martyrs St Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe).

In a letter of June 1886 Mackay reported that a violent persecution had broken out a month before: a Christian page had refused “to be made the victim of an unmentionable abomination”, and the king had declared that the Christians learned disobedience from the white men and that he would kill them all (Mackay of Uganda pp. 276–277). About a dozen, he wrote, were hacked to pieces on the first day, and over thirty were killed by the bands sent out to seize them (Mackay of Uganda pp. 276–277). Ashe writes that the king killed several of the French priests’ leading pupils, that the Anglican missionaries heard daily of the murder of one of their own converts, and that the blacksmith Walukaga and some thirty others were bound and burned on one great pyre (Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 220–226). The Catholic bishops of Uganda record that Charles Lwanga, head of the pages, was burned at Namugongo on 3 June 1886 (Uganda Episcopal Conference, The Uganda Martyrs St Charles Lwanga).

Paul VI canonized Lwanga, Matthias Mulumba Kalemba and twenty companions on 18 October 1964 (Paul VI, Homily of 18 October 1964 title and par. 7, 9). In his homily he said that Anglicans too had met death for the name of Christ, and that a long list could be drawn up of them (Paul VI, Homily of 18 October 1964 title and par. 7, 9). The Church of England keeps 3 June as the day of the Martyrs of Uganda, whom it dates to 1885–7 (Church of England, Calendar 3 June). Preaching at Namugongo in 2015, Pope Francis said that the deaths of the Anglican martyrs “testify to the ecumenism of blood” (Francis, Homily at Namugongo par. 2).