Pope Paul VI declares 22 Uganda martyrs Saints

Thursday, October 18, marked exactly 54 years since the declaration of what has come to be one of Uganda’s most celebrated days, the Uganda Martyrs’ Day.

It was decreed and proclaimed on October 18, 1964, by Pope Paul VI, who was himself made a saint earlier this month.
On the mission Sunday of October 18, 1964, the 22 Ugandan martyrs were declared saint of the Universal Catholic Church at St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

The process, from the moment the idea was presented to the authorities to the time of canonisation, took 52 years.
Having been involved in the different stages of the process, Ugandans were not only attendees but participants in the canonisation mass.

Ugandan church music composer Joseph Kyayambidwa was tasked with putting a choir together for the day. The choir performed two songs, Lwali lukulu and Balina Omukisa during Holy Communion.

Second Vatican Council
According to John F. Faupel’s book African Holocaust: The Story of the Uganda Martyrs, the canonisation happened during the Second Vatican Council, meaning that the cream de la cream of the Catholic Church was in the Vatican at the time.
Uganda had political, religious and traditional representation. The Uganda government was represented by then vice president William Wilberforce Kadhumbula Nadiope and Matthias Ngobi, then minister of Agriculture.

The Buganda Kingdom was represented by its minister of justice, Francis Walugembe, while Buganda’s royal family, which had a hand in not only the killing of the martyrs but also the coming of Christianity to Uganda, was represented by Prince David Ssimbwa, brother of Kabaka Edward Muteesa, and Princess Mary Mazzi.

“Over 200 clergy, religious and lay people from Uganda attended the event,” Faupel writes.
During the singing of the Litany of the Saints, different cardinals, bishops and patriarchs approached the papal throne to pay homage to him, one after the other.

With the paying of the homage done, the papal postulator of the cause of the martyrs, Fr Anthony Wonter, using the tradition formula of instanter, instatius, instatissime (urgently, more urgently, most urgently) begged the pope to proclaim martyrs of Uganda as Saints of God.

It was the pope’s secretary who first responded to the postulator’s request before the pope gave his response. “His holiness was prepared to grant this request but called for prayers and the invocation of the Holy Spirit,” the secretary said.
After a short silent prayer and the singing of the hymn veni creator spiritus, the pope made the proclamation.

“To the honour of the Holy and indivisible Trinity for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and our very own, after mature deliberations and frequent prayers for divine guidance and with advise of our venerable brethren the cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, and bishops of the Holy Roman Catholic present in the city, we decree and define as holy and inscribe in the roll of Saints the Blessed Charles Lwanga, Matthias Mulumba Kalemba and their 20 companions,” the pope said.

“We decree that their memory be commemorated by the universal Church with pious devotion each year on June 3. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
With those words, the 22 Ugandans became saints of the Catholic Church, not only in Uganda, but for the worldwide Catholic community.

After the pope decreeing and declaring June 3 of every year a date to remember the martyrs of Uganda, an instruction to have an official recording of the Act of canonisation was made.
It was accompanied with the official notification of the entire world church of the declaration of the 22 Ugandan martyrs to sainthood.

The following day, Monday 19, the pope made a papal address to the Ugandan delegation that attended the canonisation. During his speech, the pope paid tribute to the martyrs and the Ugandans for their faith in God.

The process
The canonisation process is subject to a number of stages of verification. In the case of the Ugandan martyrs, the process started on August 14, 1912, when Pope Pius X declared the Uganda martyrs “venerable”.

The following year, Bishop Henri Streicher set up a tribunal to receive people who had witnessed miracles performed by the martyrs. Among these were Denis Kamyuka and Joseph Nsingirisa. The two men personally witnessed the execution of some of the martyrs.

In 1916, the Sacred Rites of Canonisation of Saints gave the beatification process a nod and on June 6, 1920, the pope consented to the canonisation process, a few days later on June 20, 1920, Pope Benedict XV declared the martyrs ‘blessed’.

The tribunal set up in Uganda received a total of 120 witnesses with miracles. Though all were verified, there was a protracted scientific verification for the cure of two White nuns of a deadly bubonic plague, which had claimed hundreds of lives.
Their miraculous cure was contained in a report by Bishop Edward Michauda who had been the bishop of Rubaga between 1933 and 1945.

Following the presentation of the report, the postulator of the cause for the canonisation of the Uganda martyrs, Fr Anthony Wonter, asked for the examination of the cure of the plague.

During the second sitting of the Congregation of Rites of Saints, it called upon the Pontifical Medical Commission to investigate the said cure. The commission reported that the cure of the plague in such a short time was exceptional and could not be explained by law of nature.

Independent medical professionals, including Muslim Dr Lal Din Ahmad who was practicing in Kampala, Dr Raynolds, an Anglican physician, and two other doctors from the UK where consulted. Their findings were not different from the Pontifical Medical Commission.

During the third Vatican Council meeting in 1964, Pope Paul VI called for the three preliminary consistories (meetings) attended by the cardinals and other Catholic clergy to hear the findings of the tribunal.

During a public meeting attended by bishops, cardinals and prelates, a report detailing the life, virtues and miracles of the martyrs was presented. In the second consistory, the pope asked the cardinals to express their views and afterwards to sign a written document which was to confirm the canonisation of the martyrs.
Among the bishops who signed the document was Uganda’s Joseph Kiwanuka, who was also the first Black bishop south of the Sahara.

The cure miracle
The two White sisters, Richildis Buck and Mary Aloyse Cribelt, had contacted the plague while attending to other sick nuns.
When the two fell ill, Bishop Michaud asked the congregation and the Christians in Rubaga Diocese to start a Novena (nine days of intensive prayers) through the intercession of the martyrs for the healing of the two sisters. Within three days of praying day and night, the sisters had fully recovered.

According to records at the Rubaga Cathedral archive centre, Dr Ahmad and two other English doctors gave evidence that “the medication given to the two sisters which was the only drug at the time was definitely not sufficient to effect the recovery. The same scientific observation was confirmed by a leading drug manufactures May & Baker”.

It was then concluded that the cure of the two women was a miracle that was attributed to the intercession of the martyrs.
The 22 canonised Ugandan martyrs were killed during the reign of Kabaka Mwanga between 1885 and 1887. Of these, 13 were burnt alive on June 3, 1886.

Papal address to the Ugandan delegation

On Monday, October 19, 1964, Pope Paul VI made a papal address to the Ugandan delegation that attended the canonisation. During his speech he paid tribute to the martyrs and the Ugandans for their faith in God:

“Lord cardinal, we thank you cordially for your inspired words, which recall to our memory the tragic and glorious story of the holy martyrs, to whom we decreed yesterday the honours of Catholic veneration, and who confirm us in the esteem and gratitude which we, together with the universal Church, owe to the Sacred Congregation you so wisely direct for the impulse and the guidance it gives to the many forms of missionary activity, and for the solicitude with which it promoted and successfully completed the cause of canonisation of the heroes of faith in Africa.

A grateful thought is due from us also to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, for the long and careful study required of it by the cause of the Uganda Martyrs.
Illustrious gentlemen, representatives of Uganda, it is with great pleasure that we salute your presence on this occasion.

We are thus afforded an opportunity to express to you, to the authorities you represent, in particular to the chief of State of Uganda, and to the nations to which you belong, our respectful greeting, our best wishes for the prosperity of your countries, and the determination of the Catholic Church to honour your nations, and to favour civil and moral progress in the confidence that your States will always be willing to accord just liberty and lawful favour to Catholics and to their institutions.
Venerable brothers and beloved sons, the bishops, priests and faithful of Uganda, your visit, occurring on the happy occasion of the canonisation of the Martyrs of Uganda, fills our heart with joy.

We have been particularly pleased to add these new saints to the long list of Africans who have been raised to the honours of the altar, martyrs, confessors, and even Roman Pontiffs, among them the African Popes Saint Victor I, Saint Miltiades, and Saint Gelasius I.

We thank you for your kindness in coming to represent your dioceses at this solemn ceremony, and we lovingly bless you and your dear ones. Through your good offices, we send our blessing to all the beloved people of Africa, especially those noble nations represented here by the distinguished missions from Uganda.
By the intercession of the Holy Martyrs, we invoke upon all our African children the choicest graces and favours of Heaven.”