2 of 3
The story is important in both Anglican and Catholic communions in Uganda. But Catholics do a bit more to show it. Actually a lot more. Most of the Catholics we met were named for a Ugandan martyr (Ugandans choose their children's surnames in addition to their first names, so they have more names to dole out). Countless institutions like schools, shops, and of course churches are named for Sts. Kizito, Mukasa, Lwanga, Mathias Murumba, and more. The story appears in Catholic stained glass and painting from the greatest to the most humble churches. And the Feast of the Uganda Martyrs is celebrated every year on June 3 with an attendance of some one million people from all over Africa. Dozens of bishops attend and co-preside. These gather near Buganda's Calvary, Namugongo—once Buganda's place of execution. An outdoor pavilion has been built for the throng around the pond where the executioners used to wash after their gruesome work. Pilgrims now bottle that water, once mixed with the blood of martyrs, to drink and bathe in.
The Catholics have built a magnificent shrine at Namugongo. It is shaped like a traditional Bugandan hut, with 22 pillars reaching to the heavens, symbolizing the 22 Catholic martyrs. If from the outside it looks unfortunately like an enormous lunar module, on the inside it looks like heaven, with oceans of dark mahogany. The altar is built over the spot where one Charles Lwanga died, and his bones and ashes are visible if you kneel down low enough (not a bad posture for any Christian). A photo on the wall shows Pope Paul VI kneeling to kiss the spot, as millions have since his visit. "Two hundred and thirty popes came and went before one visited Africa," a tour guide told us, explaining the continent's love for the pope who canonized of the Uganda Martyrs. A number of nuns seem to spend all their time at the shrine, like Simeon and Anna in the temple, awaiting their savior.
To say the Anglican shrine was a letdown would be a vast understatement. The Anglicans had no commemorative structure until the announcement of Paul VI's upcoming visit in the late 1960s. So they built a historic reconstruction of the event. Statues of martyrs bound in reeds lie in a hut, as though about to be burned. In another corner of the yard sits a re-creation of the executioner's hut. A plaque says a certain tree grows in the spot where a previous tree stood which had been a site of torture before the martyrdoms. Another commemorates Paul's visit. Other plaques teach of famous conversions: the executioner of the Ugandan martyrs and eventually the kings of Buganda who succeeded Mwanga.
share this page
RSS Feed
