June 3

Spiritual Bouquet: Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. St. Luke 13:24

The HOLY MARTYRS of UGANDA
(†1885, †1886, †1887)

These Saints lived in the area of Central Africa called Uganda. Never had anyone spoken the name of God in that land, and the devil ruled there by means of slavery, sorcery and cannibalism. One day in 1879, Father Lourdel and Father Livinhac, two members of the White Fathers’ Society, arrived amid these poor natives. At once they introduced themselves to King Mutesa, who welcomed them peacefully and granted them permission to reside in his kingdom.

The dedicated missionaries were all to all, and they rendered service any way they could. Less than seven months after they opened a catechumenate, they selected some individuals worthy of preparation for Baptism. King Mutesa took an interest in what the Fathers were preaching, but before long their words aroused the anger of the jealous witch doctors and of the Arabs, who were engaging in slavery.

Anticipating a persecution, Fathers Lourdel and Livinhac baptized the natives who were already prepared and then withdrew south of Lake Victoria with a few young Blacks they had bought out of slavery. A smallpox epidemic decimated the population of that area, and the missionaries baptized great numbers of dying children.

After they had been three years in exile, King Mutesa passed away. His son, Mwanga, who was in favor of the new religion, asked them to return. On July 12, 1885, the inhabitants of Uganda, who had not forgotten the multiple benefits they had received from the missionaries, gave Fathers Lourdel and Livinhac a triumphant welcome. The Blacks they had baptized before their departure had baptized others in turn; their apostolate promised to be a flourishing one. However, the new king’s minister felt intimidated by the Christians’ success, especially that of the leader of the pages, Joseph Mukasa, who opposed the prevalent immorality.

This young man was the friend and confidant of the king and could easily have become the second most important person in the kingdom. His only ambition, however, was to fulfill the teachings of Christ in himself and in his companions. The minister convinced the young king that the Christians wanted to seize his throne; the witch doctors insisted that the supposed conspirators be punished by death at once. Mwanga yielded to these false accusations, and on November 15, 1885, he had Joseph Mukasa burned to death.

The tyrant boasted, “After I’ve killed that one, all the others will be afraid and will abandon the religion of the priests.” Contrary to this prediction, however, conversions continued to abound. On the night of Joseph’s martyrdom, twelve catechumens requested the favor of Baptism. Another 105 catechumens were baptized during the week following Joseph’s death, some of whom would later be numbered among the eleven future martyrs.

On May 25^th, six months after the odious murder of Joseph, the king returned from a hunt and summoned one of his pages, Dennis, age 14. Mwanga questioned him and learned that he was studying catechism with Mwafu, a baptized boy. He flew into a rage and thrust his poisoned spear through the boy’s throat. The executioners completed the task the following day, May 26^th, on which the despot officially declared open persecution against the Christians.

The same day Mwanga had young Honoratus mutilated and tortured, and a neophyte named James, who had once attempted to convert Mwanga to Christianity, had a yoke hung around his neck. Then Mwanga assembled all the Christian pages and gave orders for them to be led to the pyre in Namugongo and burned alive. James died in that fire along with the other martyrs on June 3, 1886, on the feast of the Ascension. Father Lourdel later wrote:

“Those between 18 and 25 years old were tied together. The younger boys, bound tightly together, could hardly walk without jostling one another. I saw little Kizito laughing at all the scrimmaging as though it were some kind of a game he was playing with his friends.” There were fifteen Catholics in all, three of whom were released at the last minute. There are twenty-two officially canonized Catholic martyrs, whose deaths occurred between 1885 and 1887.

On May 26, 1886, on its way to the torture site, the condemned group encountered a young man named Pontian. The head executioner asked him, “Do you know how to pray?” Pontian answered in the affirmative; the torturer pierced him with a spear and cut off his head. When nighttime fell, each of the martyrs was immobilized in a yoke; the chief executioner’s son was forced to leave the group of victims and return home. After a long, exhausting trek in which they received untold mistreatment, the captives reached Namugongo on May 27^th. A hundred or so torturers divided the prisoners among themselves.

The cruel executioners labored until June 3^rd to gather all the wood needed for the fire. Thus the prisoners had to wait six long days — long days filled with privation and suffering, and cold, sleepless nights filled with ardent prayer, while awaiting the death that would come to crown their heroic combat. The beating of the tom-toms throughout the night of June 2^nd told the languishing martyrs, bound in their huts, that the immense fire of their supreme holocaust would soon be lit.

Charles Lwanga, a young man of great strength and agility, had been appointed by the king to direct a group of pages; he had taught them catechism in hiding. He was now separated from his companions to be burned in an especially terrible manner. The torturer lit the fire in such a way as to burn the feet of his victim first. “You’re burning me,” said Charles, “but it’s like water you’re pouring to wash me.” When the flames reached the area of his heart, just before he expired, Charles murmured, “My God! My God!”

As the group of martyrs drew near the fire, a triumphant cry resounded: Mbaga, the chief executioner’s son, had succeeded in running away from home to fly to his martyrdom. He was jumping with joy upon finding himself once again in the company of his friends. He was struck down with a hammer, then rolled along with the others into reed mats as the executioners prepared to throw them into the fire.

After the torturers had burned their feet, they promised to release them promptly if they would give up praying. But these heroes did not fear the death of the body. Faced with a categorical refusal to apostatize, the torturers lit the fire. Above the roaring of the great fire and the clamor of the bloodthirsty executioners, the prayers of the holy martyrs rose up calm, ardent and serene: “Our Father, who art in heaven...” The executioners knew they were dead when they stopped praying.

The last of the martyrs was called John Mary. He had been obliged to live in hiding for a long time; finally, tired of his wandering life, he conceived an ardent desire to die for his faith. Despite the advice of his friends, who attempted to dissuade him from his project, John Mary decided to go and speak to King Mwanga. No one ever saw him again; on January 27, 1887, Mwanga had him beheaded and thrown into a pond.

Popular devotion to the Martyrs of Uganda took on a universal character after Saint Pius X proclaimed them Venerable on August 16, 1912. Their beatification occurred on June 6, 1920, and they received the honors of canonization on October 18, 1964.

Sources: Vivante Afrique, Namur: Sept.-Oct. 1964, No. 234, pp. 1-61; Marteau de Langle de Cary, 1959, Vol. II, pp. 305-308.

ST. CLOTILDA
Queen of France
(†545)

Saint Clotilda was the daughter of Chilperic, the Catholic King of Burgundy, domain of the Germanic tribe which had entered the southeastern region of ancient France in the fifth century; Chilperic had succeeded his father in that royalty. His jealous older brother, infected with Arianism, declared war on him, surrounded him with an army, captured and slew his own brother and his brother’s wife and two sons, while sparing the two daughters, then took over their dominions. Clotilda’s older sister became a nun, but the younger daughter was brought up under her uncle’s protection, and, by a singular providence, instructed in the Catholic religion. Her beauty, modesty, and Catholic piety inspired the prayers of her fellow Christians that an alliance might be arranged between the young princess and Clovis, king of the Franks, victorious in the north. Nonetheless, Clotilda was half-cloistered by her uncle, for fear the ancient partisans of Childebert might find hope in the hand of the king’s daughter.

Her almsgiving at the portico of a church was well known, however, and provided an opportunity for an ambassador of Clovis to present the king’s suit, thereby giving to Christian France a history not less captivating than the Old Testament history of Abraham’s trusted servant’s mission to Mesopotamia to obtain a wife for Isaac. The messenger went to her there with the king’s request, and offered her a ring as his pledge; she accepted, and left her own with the envoy in exchange. Thus Clovis I, victorious king of the Franks, gained his suit; the reservation was made by Clotilda, however, that she could only marry a Christian. The ambassador from Clovis, a Roman nobleman in his service, then presented to her uncle the demand that the fiancee of his master be delivered to him to be taken to Clovis. For fear of a war, her uncle consented. In this way did prayer obtain for the young king, not yet Christian but who was the hope of the oppressed Catholics, the Queen destined to become the spiritual mother of the Catholic kingdom of France.

Clovis’ fear of giving offense to his people made him delay his conversion. Nonetheless, Saint Clotilda honored her royal husband, studied to sweeten his warlike temper by Christian gentleness, and conformed herself to his humor in matters which were indifferent. And the better to gain his affections, she made whatever she knew most pleased him, the subject of her conversation and interest. When she saw she had won his heart, she did not defer the great work of endeavoring to win him to God.

His miraculous victory over the Alemanni, and his complete conversion and baptism by Saint Remigius at Rheims in 496, with all his warriors and nobles, were the final fruit of his holy wife’s virtue and prayers. France became in this way “the eldest daughter of the Church.” And Saint Clotilda, having gained to God this great monarch, never ceased to inspire in him glorious enterprises for the divine honor. Among other religious foundations, at her request he built in Paris, about the year 511, the great church of Saints Peter and Paul.

The famous prince died on the 27^th of November in the year 511, at the age of forty-five, having reigned thirty years. His eldest son, Theodoric, reigned from Rheims over the eastern parts of France, Clodomir reigned at Orleans, Childebert II at Paris, and Clotaire I at Soissons. This division produced wars and mutual jealousies until in 560, after the death of Clotilda, the whole monarchy was reunited under Clotaire, the youngest of the four brothers. The dissension in her family detached Clotilda’s heart still more perfectly from the world. She spent the last thirty years of her life in exercises of prayer, almsgiving, night vigils, fasting, and penance, seeming to forget that she had been queen. Eternity filled her heart and occupied all her thoughts. She foretold her death one month before it happened. On the thirtieth day of her illness, she received the Sacraments, made a public confession of her faith, and departed to the Lord on June 3, 545.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 6; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).