Charles Lwanga
Head of the pages at the court of Buganda and a leader of the Catholic converts there. He was burned to death at Namugongo in June 1886 and canonized with twenty-one companions in 1964.
The Catholic bishops of Uganda record that Lwanga was born about 1861 in Buddu, that he was head of the king’s pages, and that on Thursday 3 June 1886 he was separated from the other prisoners at Namugongo and burned in a slow fire (Uganda Episcopal Conference, The Uganda Martyrs St Charles Lwanga). John Paul II, preaching at Namugongo in 1993, called it the place of “the great fire which consumed Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions” (John Paul II, Homily at Namugongo 2). Pope Francis said there in 2015 that Lwanga and Joseph Mukasa, having been taught the faith by others, wanted to pass it on, at a time when their own lives and those of the younger boys in their care were in danger (Francis, Homily at Namugongo par. 4).
Benedict XV beatified Lwanga and twenty-one others on 6 June 1920, and Paul VI canonized them on 18 October 1964 (Paul VI, Homily of 18 October 1964 title and par. 2). See the Martyrs of Uganda.
In the timeline
- 1885 to 1886, firm dateThe Martyrs of Uganda
In 1885 and 1886 King Mwanga of Buganda has Christian converts killed, Anglicans and Catholics alike, many of them burned together in 1886, and an Anglican bishop put to death. Both churches honour them as martyrs.