Robert Barron on St Charles Lwanga and companions

Today, 3 June, is the Memorial of Charles Lwanga and Companions Martyrs.  Charles and his companions were Ugandans who were martyred in the late 1800s.

Fr Robert Barron has a good article about them and a Mass commemorating their martyrdom on this date a few years ago.  He writes about the martyrs:

The most prominent of these were a group of men and boys who served as pages to the court of King Mwanga II. This king had initially been supportive of the missionaries, but his attitude quickly changed when he discovered how seriously his Christian pages took the moral demands of their new faith. Accustomed to getting whatever he wanted, Mwanga solicited sexual favors from several of his courtiers. When they refused, he presented them with a terrible choice: either renounce their Christian faith or die. Though they were new converts and though they were very young, the pages, to a man, refused to deny their Christianity. Joseph Mukasa Balikudembe was killed outright by the king himself, and the rest were led off on a terrible death march to the place of execution, many miles outside the capital city.

American Catholic (http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/Saint.aspx?id=1403) points out:

When Pope Paul VI canonized these 22 martyrs on October 18, 1964, he referred to the Anglican pages martyred for the same reason.

You should read all of Fr Barron's article.