For 3 June 2025, Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, based on Acts 20:17-27
(Featured image: Philipp Jakob, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
17 From Miletus [Paul] sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. 18 When they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. 20 I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, 21 as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. 22 And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. 24 But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.
25 “And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. 26 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
On June 3, 1886, on the Feast of the Ascension, Charles Lwanga, at the age of 26, suffered martyrdom in the African kingdom of Buganda. Charles was the first of 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican men and boys, many of them recently baptized, who refused the demands of a brutal king and were tortured and burned alive. In 1964, during the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI canonized the 22 Catholic Ugandan martyrs. The Anglican Church also recognizes its martyrs as saints.
As we commemorate these martyrs of Africa, my mind turns quickly to the 12.5 million African men, women, boys, and girls kidnapped and sold into chattel slavery and to the Black suffering woven so deeply for over five hundred years into the story of Africa and the Americas. Here in St. Louis, in the slave state of Missouri, the archdiocesan ministry promoting racial equity concerns of the Black Catholic community is aptly named the St. Charles Lwanga Center.
Today, in chapter 20 of Acts, Paul testifies that he did not shrink from proclaiming the message of the Gospel to both Jews and Greeks in the Greek city of Ephesus, and now that he hears the call of the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, he senses that imprisonment and persecution await him. Down through the years, and very much so today, imprisonment and persecution have come to so many Africans and African Americans, and for so many, their Christian faith has buoyed them up. In the midst of suffering, they testify to the good news of God’s grace.
Black martyrdom and Black suffering continue in our midst today. We prayerfully ask the Ugandan martyrs and St. Paul to stay close to all those who suffer so that their humanity, virtue, and faith will give lasting testimony to the suffering and promises of Christ. We pray, too, that each of us listening here will play our part as witnesses to the faith as we work to ameliorate the root causes of the racism, bigotry, and scapegoating in our midst. St. Charles Lwanga and St. Paul, pray for us.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Gregory Heille, O.P., serves as Professor of Preaching and Evangelization and director of the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a friar of the Province of St. Albert the Great USA and has a particular interest in racial equity education.
3 Jun 2025
2 CommentsBlack Martyrdom
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(Featured image: Philipp Jakob, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
17 From Miletus [Paul] sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. 18 When they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. 20 I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, 21 as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. 22 And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. 24 But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.
25 “And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. 26 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
On June 3, 1886, on the Feast of the Ascension, Charles Lwanga, at the age of 26, suffered martyrdom in the African kingdom of Buganda. Charles was the first of 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican men and boys, many of them recently baptized, who refused the demands of a brutal king and were tortured and burned alive. In 1964, during the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI canonized the 22 Catholic Ugandan martyrs. The Anglican Church also recognizes its martyrs as saints.
As we commemorate these martyrs of Africa, my mind turns quickly to the 12.5 million African men, women, boys, and girls kidnapped and sold into chattel slavery and to the Black suffering woven so deeply for over five hundred years into the story of Africa and the Americas. Here in St. Louis, in the slave state of Missouri, the archdiocesan ministry promoting racial equity concerns of the Black Catholic community is aptly named the St. Charles Lwanga Center.
Today, in chapter 20 of Acts, Paul testifies that he did not shrink from proclaiming the message of the Gospel to both Jews and Greeks in the Greek city of Ephesus, and now that he hears the call of the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, he senses that imprisonment and persecution await him. Down through the years, and very much so today, imprisonment and persecution have come to so many Africans and African Americans, and for so many, their Christian faith has buoyed them up. In the midst of suffering, they testify to the good news of God’s grace.
Black martyrdom and Black suffering continue in our midst today. We prayerfully ask the Ugandan martyrs and St. Paul to stay close to all those who suffer so that their humanity, virtue, and faith will give lasting testimony to the suffering and promises of Christ. We pray, too, that each of us listening here will play our part as witnesses to the faith as we work to ameliorate the root causes of the racism, bigotry, and scapegoating in our midst. St. Charles Lwanga and St. Paul, pray for us.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Gregory Heille, O.P., serves as Professor of Preaching and Evangelization and director of the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a friar of the Province of St. Albert the Great USA and has a particular interest in racial equity education.