On the Universal Church Calendar, the 3rd of June is designated as the Memorial of St Charles Lwanga and Companions, also known as the Uganda Martyrs Day. On the 3rd of June is also the day Father Patrick Peyton died at the Convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor in San Pedro California. Both the Uganda Martyrs and Father Peyton carry significant value to me personally but also to the ministry of Holy Cross Family Ministries.
Between 1885 and 1887, King Mwanga the absolute monarch of the Kingdom of Buganda felt he had had enough of the disobedience of the new converts to Catholicism and Christianity. The new converts to Christianity no longer accepted any orders from him that contravened their Christian faith or Christian ethical values. In an absolute monarch, such a principled stand came with a heavy price, and the price was death in the most brutal manner the king could ordered.
King Mwanga had a palace at a place called Munyonyo in the current capital city of Uganda, Kampala. He ordered all the converts to Christianity arrested and arraigned before him at the palace. He gave them a choice, to choose between abandoning the new faith and facing execution. The new converts to the faith chose death. In my ethnic language (Lusoga) we have a call-and-answer song that says “Abadhulizi tibatya lumbe! Tubatenda buzira! Abadhulizi tibatya lumbe! Tubatenda buzira! (The Martyrs did not fear death! We Marvel at their Courage!).
The song goes on to say: The martyrs were scourged, they were spat on, they were speared, they were cut with lances, they were burned alive at Namugongo! The chorus or response in the song re-affirms the unwavering faith of the martyrs - “They did not fear death! We marvel at their courage! We are inspired by their faith!
The Kingdom of Buganda was one of the most highly organized in the Great Lakes Region of Sub-Saharan Africa. It had a King (Kabaka), a parliament (Lukiiko), Chiefs (Abaami), and an army (Abambowa), a Chief Executioner (Mukajjanga), and an Execution Site (Namugongo). When the King made a decision to execute the martyrs, they were handed over to the Chief Executioner (Mukajjanga) who marched them to the execution site. The old King’s palace at Munyonyo is now a Catholic Minor Basilica, and the old Execution Site is another Catholic Basilica (Namugongo). The 3rd June in Uganda is now a Public Holiday, and Pre-Covid close to three million people used to gather at the execution site to celebrate the heroic lives of the martyrs. Some of the pilgrims walk on foot for months to get to the site.
I started making a pilgrimage to the execution site which currently is a pilgrimage site since I was in the fourth grade. I developed a special devotion to St Kizito who was killed at the age of 14 and was the youngest of all the martyrs. I have celebrated many Masses at the altar built on the spot where St Charles Lwanga the leader of the Martyrs was executed. I have celebrated Masses at the spot where St Mathias Mulumba was executed. Currently, the Church in Uganda and much of Africa is experiencing massive growth where the Churches are full, the Convents are full, and the Seminaries are full too! We attribute the growth of the Church to the blood, the witness, and the intercession of the Martyrs.
Venerable Patrick Peyton conducted several Rosary Rallies in Uganda in 1955 that were attended by tens of thousands of people. Last month of May, our Holy Cross Family Ministries team in the city of Kampala held a massive Rosary Rally with a police-guided procession through the streets of the city that drew close to ten thousand people! Truly as the great Church Father Tertullian so beautifully put it, “the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church” – if you mow down the Christians, they will multiply because their blood is like fertilizer!
May the courage of the Uganda Martyrs be our courage too. May the missionary spirit of Venerable Patrick Peyton be our spirit too. May those who undergo persecution because of their faith find victory through the intercession of the Uganda Martyrs.