I recently shared about Renewal Ministries’ ongoing work in Uganda. One of the most special things about Uganda is the extraordinary example of the Ugandan martyrs.

In the late nineteenth century, a king who was greatly angered by his Christian pages’ resistance to his homosexual advances went into a rage and ordered their executions. They refused to deny Christ and truly died as martyrs. Researchers have compiled firsthand accounts from the many eyewitnesses to the events leading up to the persecution and deaths. Of these, I highly recommend African Holocaust: The Story of the Uganda Martyrs.

King Mwanga took the Bugandan throne after his father’s death while he was still a teenager. The Bugandan king had absolute power over his subjects. King Mwanga grew increasingly self-indulgent and unpredictable in his views and behaviors. At some points, he seemed to seriously entertain becoming a Christian; at other times, he played the Catholics, Protestants, Moslems, and pagans against each other and saw religion as an instrument of manipulation to his own benefit.

The king initially welcomed Catholic and Protestant missionaries, who saw growing success in their efforts. But as their numbers grew, the king became alarmed, because his Christian subjects no longer viewed him as the highest power in their lives. Eventually, the Catholic missionaries heard rumors of an impending persecution, and under orders from their religious superiors, they left the country for almost three years.

The relatively small number of converts they had baptized, and the many catechumens who were being taught both the catechism and prayers that lead to an uprightness of life, rose to the occasion in the missionaries’ absence. The missionary priests had known that their new converts might face persecution, so they had taken care to provide them with several years of instruction and preparation before baptizing them. The missionaries also explicitly asked new converts if they were willing to die for Christ. As in other situations where clergy were expelled—such as in Korea and Japan—the new converts continued to evangelize, catechize, and care for one another even in the missionaries’ absence.

Most of the believers were young men in their teens or twenties, but some were older, had high positions in the kingdom, and were highly regarded by the king for their loyalty and competence. His closest friend and constant hunting companion was Andrew Kaggwa, a leader among the Christians. This  did not restrain the king’s rage, however, and Andrew was brutally tortured and murdered. His arm was cut off, then he was beheaded, and his body was hacked to pieces.

When the missionaries returned, they found a thriving community of about one-thousand believers, with a truly impressive lay leadership, and many more interested in the faith.

However, there were those who hated the growth of Christianity, including the chancellor—the second most powerful man in the kingdom—who detested what he saw as an overthrow of traditional religion and pagan gods.

The refusal of the king’s pages to go along with the king’s homosexual advances was a significant cause for the persecution, but it wasn’t the only one. At first, the king only practiced this vice privately, as the Bugandan people did not accept homosexuality. Only after the persecution did he more openly practice it. He saw the growth of Christianity as a threat to the loyalty of his subjects, who now placed Jesus as a higher authority in their life than the king. Just like the Roman emperors, who “tested” the absolute loyalty of their subjects by requiring that they burn incense to them and treat them as gods, every totalitarian power eventually requires the same test. The never-ending rank of martyrs throughout Church history attests to this demand that man be worshipped even above God.

While trouble had been brewing for a variety of reasons, it all related to the king’s fear of losing power to Christianity. The event that triggered the ferocious persecution was when the king asked for all his pages, and his favorite sexual partner, a son of the chancellor, was among those who did not respond. The king discovered that the Christians were evangelizing this page, and his personal instability and various addictions fueled his anger and jealousy. He ordered the death of all the Christians in his court, which now were many.

Joseph Mukasa, the leader of the Christians, had already been speared to death by the king himself six months earlier. The hatred behind that death spread to whomever the king could get his hands on among his closest attendants and collaborators. On May 26, 1886, three Christians were murdered at the king’s residence at Munyonyo. Charles Lwanga sensed the coming slaughter and secretly baptized four catechumens to prepare them for their ordeal and heavenly entrance. One of these was fourteen-year-old Kizito. While Kizito was afraid, Charles Lwanga told him, “When the decisive moment arrives, I shall take your hand like this. If we have to die for Jesus, we shall die together, hand in hand.”

All the Christian pages and officials were arrested and led on a forced march, chained to each other, and beaten. Some were brutally executed along the way and left on the road to rot and be eaten by wild animals as a warning to others. On June 3, 1886, they were all finally killed at Namugongo, one of the kingdom’s designated execution sites.  They were burned to death, usually after being fiendishly tortured. In some cases, family members were enlisted to plead with the Christians to not be foolish and to abandon their faith. Encouraging one another, the Christians refused.

The chancellor’s own son refused to apostatize despite fervent pleas, promises, and threats. His own father ordered him to be killed—but out of pity told the soldiers to kill his son with a blow to the head before they put him on the fire.

One of the executioners later described what he was ordered to do to Matthias, a martyr killed on the journey to the execution site:

The chancellor had ordered us not to kill him quickly, but to make him suffer a long time. Therefore, we began by cutting off his arms at the wrists, and later at the elbows. And then his legs at the knees. After that we cut pieces of flesh from his body and left him there.

More than a hundred executioners participated in the slaughter of the Christians. Perhaps they were experiencing pangs of guilt at the brutal tasks they undertook when they said, “It is not we who are killing you but the gods, whom you called demons, who are doing so.”

Twenty-two Catholic martyrs were canonized during a session of Vatican II in 1965, and perhaps as many Anglican martyrs. Probably at least one-hundred faithful were killed throughout the kingdom, speared to death or bludgeoned by those hunting Christians at the king’s command. Of those killed, many could not be identified or documented.

The courage and fidelity of these “new Christians” is an astounding witness. Many had until very recently been catechumens, just learning the faith. Their recitation of the Our Father and Hail Mary throughout their ordeals, professions of faith in the resurrection of the dead, and professions of loyalty to their true king, Jesus, is extraordinary. So too is the care they took for each other. They continually encouraged one another to remain faithful, supported the wavering, and anticipated the joy of heaven.

Some of the scripture passages that they repeated to each other were inspired by the Holy Spirit precisely for times like the ones they faced:

Every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. (Mt 10:32)

For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Mt 16:25)

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Rom 8:18)

There were ongoing tensions between the Protestant and Catholic missionaries when the persecution came, but both the Anglicans and Catholics remained equally faithful to Christ and in solidarity with each other.

What an example of lay holiness and mission, true and deep faith, and brotherly love! What a testimony to the truth of Jesus’ promise that when we are brought before kings and judges, the Holy Spirit will be with us and show us what to say! Holy martyrs of Uganda, pray for us!

This article originally appeared in Renewal Ministries’ September 2024 newsletter.