St. Charles Lwanga, Our Namesake

On a visit to the capital of Buganda (now Uganda) in 1880, Charles Lwanga became interested in the teachings of the missionaries and began to attend their instruction. On the accession of King Mwanga, Charles went to the court and entered royal service. His leadership qualities were such that he was in charge of the royal pages and he immediately won the confidence and affection of his charges.

King Mwanga began to insist Christian converts abandon their new faith and executed many believers between 1885 and 1887. After the first three individuals beheaded and made martyrs, Joseph Mukasa, a senior advisor to the king and a Catholic convert who had become a mentor to Charles Lwanga, condemned the king for ordering the death of the Anglican missionary, Archbishop James Hannington. The king, annoyed by the questioning of his rulings, had Mukasa beheaded in November 1885.

Immediately after the martyrdom of Mukasa, Charles and many of his companions in the court of the king sought baptism. When challenged by King Mwanga to explain their Christian belief many of the young men willingly confessed their conversion to Christianity. Charles became a leader and teacher, even baptizing some of his fellow pages himself. Several months later in May of 1886, after refusing to deny their faith in Christ, Charles and several others were sentenced to death by burning at stake.

On June 3rd, 1886, on the Feast of the Ascension, Charles Lwanga was put to death on a small pyre on a hill at Namugongo, Uganda. He was wrapped in a reed mat, with a slave yoke on his neck and to make him suffer more; a fire was lit under his feet and legs first. Taunted by his executioner, Charles replied: ‘You are burning me, but it is as if you are pouring water over my body. Please repent and become a Christian like me.” He then remained quietly praying. Just before the end, he cried out in a loud voice “Katonda!” which means “my God.”

Saint Charles Lwanga and twenty-one other Ugandan martyrs were canonized together as “The Ugandan Martyrs” by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Although the Anglicans could not be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, for the first time, they were declared “worthy of mention for enduring death for the name of Christ.”

Rather than halting the spread of Christianity, these early believers sparked growth. Following the executions, many were seen carrying their Bibles in public. These seeds of faith became the impulse that eventually sparked the East African Revival, the growth of the Anglican Church in the global South, and Anglican revival of which St. Charles, Bremerton is a part.