June 3rd - St. Charles Lwanga By: Atul Thomas

Today’s commemorated  Saint is St. Charles Lwanga. He was born on January 1st 1860 to the kingdom of Buganda and served as chief of the royal pages and later the major-domo in the Court of the King Mwanga ll.  The King was unjust and ordered the beheading of many people such as bishop James Hannington after he has reproached the king for his killings.  Lwanga and others sought baptism as Catholics by a missionary priest of the White Fathers.  Lwanga often protected boys from the king’s sexual advances. One day Mwanga condemned two pages to death, the following mourning, Lwanga secretly baptized them.  Later that the king then called a court assembly where he made them renounce Christianity.  Led by Lwanga, he and the royal pages declared their faith towards Christianity.  He and all the others were condemned to death.  On June 3rd 1886, Charles Lwanga was burnt alive, while he was being prepped to be burnt alive, he told the executioner “It is as if you are pouring water on me.  Please repent and become a Christian like me. Lwanga and the other Christians who accompanied him in death were canonized on October 1964 by Pope Paul the 6th.  He a perfect patron of those striving for purity and resisting the myriad temptations and downright celebrations and sexual confusion.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Dear Lord, we thank you for the virtue and example of your martyr St Charles Lwanga and his companions. Help us to imitate the deep love for your church that inspired them to spread the Catholic faith to others.  Pray for me that I may have courage and devotion like yours. Amen.