About 45 Anglicans and Roman Catholics, the Uganda Martyrs were killed under the Kabaka Mwanga’s rule during Christian persecution. The White Fathers Mission in 1879 founded the first Roman Catholic missions to the Bantu-speaking Africa.
The Kabaka Mutesa I welcomed Christians, but his successor Kabaka Mwanga started a war against them in October 1885, killing the Anglican missionary Bishop James Hannington and others. Important member of the royal family and Catholic Joseph Mukasa chastised Kabaka Mwanga for the massacre on November 15 of that year; Mukasa had his head cut off while on Uganda Safaris.
The next victims were the Christian pages under Mukasa’s direction. Learning that the page Denis Ssebuggwawo had given them religious instruction, Kabaka Mwanga decided that all of the young people should be jailed. But Charles Lwanga, Mukasa’s successor, later covertly baptized those young boys who had simply been catechumens.
Three of them, Pontian Ngondwe, a soldier, the royal servants Athanasius Bazzeketta and Gonzaga Gonza, were killed en-route to the town of Namugongo the following day. Father Lourdel, superior of the Roman Catholic mission to Uganda, noted this while the other lads carried on their trek; he was imprisoned for a week.
Except for Mbaga-Tuzinde, who was beaten by his own father, the pages were later burned alive on June 3, 1886. These included Kizito, Ambrose Kibuka, Anatole Kiriggwajjo, Achilles Kiwanuka, Mugagga, Mukasa Kiriwawanvu, Adolphus Mukasa Ludigo, Gyavira. Additionally martyred alone with them were Bruno Serunkuma, James Buzabaliawo, and Luke Banabakintu among the soldiers and authorities.
Schools, hospitals, highways, structures only to mention a few have been named in honor of the martyrs today Ugandans live in memory of them in different ways. Pope Benedict XV dedicated the 22 African Roman Catholic martyrs collectively in 1920 and Pope Paul VI declared them canonized on October 18, 1964. Consequently, the Namugongo Martyrs memorial hosts celebrations on June 3rd.
Uganda’s only faith-based travel product, the Uganda Martyrs Trail transports you to several locations where the first Christian missionaries passed and preached as well as where some of the martyrs were slaughtered prior to their remains being hauled to be burned at Namugongo.
Many people, particularly Christians who honor the lives of the martyrs on June 3rd every year, have always found great emotional resonance in the passing of these martyrs; the Republic of Uganda marks this day as Public Holiday. Their memory was enhanced when the Catholic Church of Rome canonized the martyrs of their faith in 1964 and beatified them in 1920.
From all over the world, many pilgrims—especially Christians— come to the Pearl of Africa to join Ugandans in celebrating the Martyrs’ Day. This is commemorated in memory of 45 young men (recorded) both Anglicans and Catholics who were killed on orders of Kabaka Mwanga II for refusing to renounce their faith in Christianity on grounds that the Whites were invading his subjects with Christianity to cause rebellion against him and as a result he killed most of his servants at Namugongo. Between November 1885 and June 1886, the execution took place; a peak occurred in Namugongo on June 3, 1886. The Uganda Martyrs Trail grew to include sites such after its opening in 2014:
Father Simeon Lourdel, later known as “Mapeera,” and Brother Amans first touched Ugandan territory when they arrived at the Mapeera Site at Bugoma, Bugala Island, on their way to Lubaga to meet with Kabaka Muteesa I, seeking permission to set up a camp in Buganda to preach, teach, and propagate Christianity.
Following a night at Bugoma, Bugala Island in Ssese, Father Simeon Lourdel and Brother Amans arrived on Kigungu Church in Entebbe on February 17, 1879 en-route to Munyonyo to see Kabaka Muteesa I.
The missionaries stayed at Kisubi on the shores of Lake Victoria along Entebbe road, a site where the Catholic Church later restored and established a seminary, schools and a well kept beach and gardens, on their way to meet with King Muteesa I at Munyonyo palace.
. The missionaries visited the Kabaka who had earlier penned a letter to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in 1876 urging Christians to come, teach and preach in the Buganda Kingdom. It is also the starting point of the path the Martyrs for Catholics and Anglicans followed before their martyrdom at Namugongo started when Kabaka Mwanga came to power following the death of his father, Kabaka Muteesa I, in 1884.
King Mwanga made the vital choice to start killing Christians at Munyonyo. The martyrs from Uganda left their blood on the ground near Munyonyo. On May 26, 1886, the first three Christians to offer their lives for Christ’s sake following the king’s decree did so. Among them were St. Denis Ssebugwao and St. Andrew Kaggwa. Here is also where in 1886 Saint Charles Lwanga, leader of the Christian community in Uganda, secretly baptized St. Kizito, St. Mbaga, St. Gyavira, and St. Muggaga. Now the site features a Cathedral and a monument opened by Pope Francis on November 27, 2015, during his visit to the Pearl of Africa.
Between 1885 and 1886, the Uganda Martyrs’ worst suffering peaked at Namugongo, a site set aside for the building of a church. Starting in 1967 and finished and publicly opened on June 3, 1975, the Uganda Martyrs’ Shrine (Catholics part) was built under the direction of His Eminence Sergio Cardinal Pignedoli.
Namugongo Shrine for the Uganda Martyrs
Dedicated to the Catholic Martyrs of Uganda who gave their lives in line with their Christian faith, the minor basilica/Shrine of the Uganda Martyrs Though its shape and architectural plan—the 22 copper pillars-over 100 feet long supporting the shrine constructed in form of an African hut and its wooden doors reflecting the history of the Martyrs—the Shrine is most famous for its beautiful and unusual interior and exterior. The Shrine can hold a thousand circularly spaced chairs.
Having refused to renounce their Christian religion, 14 of the 22 Catholic Uganda Martyrs were burned alive on orders from Kabaka Mwanga II in 1886. Following the holocaust of these Martyrs which peaked on June 3, 1886 Namugongo has gradually taken on the image of attraction as a location of pilgrimage as God simultaneously has glorified them before Believers.
Pope Benedict XV beatified Uganda Martyrs on June 6, 1920. On Mission Sunday, October 8, 1964 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Pope Paul VI declared them to be saints. The first visit ever by a pope to the African Continent, the same Pope remembered the Martyrs with a pilgrimage on July 31, 1969 – until August 2, 1969.
Remembering the effort carried out by St. Charles Lwanga when still a page in King Mwanga’s palace, when he led the excavation of the famed Kabaka’s lake in Ndeeba, a Martyrs’ lake was also dug at Namugongo directly behind the chapel. Many pilgrims have collected water from this lake and subsequently reported on how it healed different ailments.
Another unusual sight at Namugongo with a clear view viewed from all angles of the over 15 acres Shrine site is the Pavilion (Island) in the lake. The chief celebrant sits for major events like Martyrs’ Day, June 3, within this pavillion. Supported by four pillars, this grass thatched pavilion—also in circular design like the Shrine—can house more than three hundred priests and several bishops who visit for the High Mass on Martyrs Day.
In honor of the 23 (documented) Anglican martyrs, the Anglican Church of Uganda also built a museum gathering all the information of the story, right from the arrival of the first missionaries, to the torture of the martyrs and the expansion of Christianity all over Uganda. Seeing these sites will provide you every spiritual and inspirational knowledge. Three Popes have thus so far visited both sites: Pope Paul VI in 1969, Pope John Paul II in 1993, and Pope Francis in 2015.
Though one can visit the Martyrs trials at any time of year, the most ideal time is between May and July every year, during which one can also participate in the annual celebrations of 3rd June every year.
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