Karoli Lwanga

Who they were

Charles Lwanga, of the Ngabi clan in the kingdom of Buganda (now part of Uganda), was converted by the Missionaries of Africa, the White Fathers, and in 1885 was called to the court of King Mwanga II as head of the royal hall. He became a support to the young converts among the pages, protecting and encouraging their faith.

When the king turned against the Christians, between November 1885 and mid-1886, Charles and his companions, Catholics and Anglicans, were marched to Namugongo. On 3 June 1886 they were burned alive, praying to the end without a cry. To the fourteen-year-old Kizito, Charles said: 'I will take you by the hand. If we must die for Jesus, we will die together, hand in hand.'

The miracles

As martyrs, Charles Lwanga and his 21 Catholic companions did not need approved miracles. Pius XI named Charles patron of the youth of Christian Africa in 1934. Pope Francis, at Namugongo in 2015, remembered the Anglican martyrs too as witnesses of an 'ecumenism of blood'.

Why that counted as sanctity

Charles Lwanga protected the boys in his care from a king's abuse and led them to death rather than deny Christ. One of the martyrs said as he died: 'A fountain with many sources will never dry up. When we are gone, others will come after us.' The Church in Africa bears that out.