Today is the Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions (d. 1886), the companions numbering twenty-one other Ugandan martyrs. They are the first martyrs of Sub-Saharan Africa and true witnesses of the Christian faith. Charles Lwanga, a catechist and a young leader, was martyred in 1886 with a group of Catholic and Anglican royal pages, some of whom were not yet baptized. King Mwanga, who despised the Christian religion, gave orders that all the Christian pages in his service be laid upon a mat, bound, placed onto a pyre and burnt. This took place at Namugongo, just outside Kampala.
The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Clotilde, queen (475-545). With her husband King Clovis (c. 466-511) she founded the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Franks for over 200 years. They were married in 492 or 493, and she converted him to Christianity in 496. When Clovis died, Clotilde retired to Tours. Her sons' quarrels caused her great sorrow. She died at the tomb of St. Martin of Tours and was buried in Sainte-Genevieve in Paris, a church that she and Clovis founded.
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