Today in the RC Calendar we honour St Kevin of Glendalough, also in the Orthodox Calendar today, and Saint Charles Lwanga of Uganda and Others with him. I would also add the more modern Uganda Martyr Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum, who I also like very much. St Kevin of Glendalough (- 618) He founded a monastery at Glendalough in County Wicklow, Ireland, which spawned a number of daughter monasteries. The city of Glendalough later became a great centre of pilgrimage. (I visited there once, a lovely place) Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions (- 1885/7) Many Christians, Catholic and Protestant, were killed by the Ugandan king Mwanga. Some of them were servants in the king’s palace or even his personal attendants. Charles Lwanga and his twenty-one companions (the youngest, Kitizo, was only 13) were executed for being Christians, for rebuking the king for his debauchery and for murdering an Anglican missionary, for “praying from a book,” and for refusing to allow themselves to be ritually sodomised by the king. They died between 1885 and 1887. Most of them were burned alive in a group after being tortured. Within a year of their deaths, the number of catechumens in the country quadrupled. St Charles Lwanga is the patron of Catholic Action and of black African youth, and the Ugandan martyrs’ feast day is a public holiday in Uganda. Being very ecumenically minded, (though from a personal Orthodox Christian base), I have a particular liking for St Charles Lwanga and his Companions, also Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum, a lovely man, who followed them later. This is an example as with some saints of Japan, for instance, where both RCs, Anglicans and other Christians were, as it were, martyred together. There is some kind of very deep significance for me in this. Uganda sadly gets some stick these days for some of its policies, but I think, (if I am correct on this), they should be appreciated for their having reduced the incidence of AIDS quite a lot. Their history must have a lot to do with it. We in Britain, as a result of refugees fleeing from Idi Amins clutches, have gained some very fine Christian people, including the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, who I believe particularly needs our prayers for his health, as well as very industrious Ugandan Asian people, without whom we would probably not have some of our corner shops now. I think also that the example of the solidarity of Ugandan Asian families, in supporting each other, is probably something that we would do well to emulate. I think that they all very rightly deserve the title of British for their contribution, and I should think, their loyalty to our country.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 07:07:33 +0000
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