Memorial of St Charles Lwanga and Companions
Today is the Memorial of St Charles Lwanga and the 21 companions who were martyred in Uganda in 1886. All these young boys and men were aged between 13 and 30 and all worked as pages in the court of King Mwanga. They remained chaste and faithful to their Catholic faith despite King Mwanga’s pressure to corrupt them. For their refusal they were thrown into prison.
St Charles Lwanga was burned to death on the 3rd of June 1886 in Namugongo and in the same year 21 other companions, many of whom he had instructed in the faith and encouraged to be faithful to God and his commandments were also brutally murdered.
St Pope Paul VI canonised them on the 18th of October 1968 and on a visit to Uganda in 1969 told some Ugandan converts that it was a noble choice to be a Christian but not always an easy one.
“So, can I call myself nought other than which I am, a Christian”
St Perpetua (181-203 Ad)
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