MEMORIAL OF SAINTS CHARLES LWANGA AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS; SAINT KEVIN OF GLENDALOUGH, ABBOT AND SAINT CLOTILDA, QUEEN OF FRANCE ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 3RD Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saints Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs; Saint Kevin of Glendalough, Abbot and Saint Clotilda, Queen of France. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for all Youths all over the world, praying for God’s guidance and protection upon them. We pray for parents, for wisdom, patience and understanding. For the sick, we pray for God’s divine healing and intervention. We also pray for the poor and the needy, for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏🏽
SAINTS CHARLES LWANGA AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS: Today, we honor twenty-two Ugandan martyrs. They are the first martyrs of Sub-Saharan Africa and true witnesses of the Christian faith. In an effort to resist a Christian worldview that undermined the authority of his office, King Mwanga II insisted that Christian converts abandon their new faith and executed many Anglicans and Catholics between 1885 and 1887, including Lwanga and other officials in the royal court or otherwise very close to him. St. Charles Lwanga is revered as a saint by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. In 1879 Catholicism began spreading in Uganda when the White Fathers, a congregation of priests founded by Cardinal Lavigerie were peacefully received by King Mutesa of Uganda. The priests soon began preparing catechumens for baptism and before long a number of the young pages in the king’s court had become Catholics. However, on the death of King Mutesa, his son Mwanga, a corrupt man who ritually engaged in pedophilic practices with the younger pages, took the throne. When King Mwanga had a visiting Anglican Bishop murdered, his chief page, Joseph Mukasa, a Catholic who went to great length to protect the younger boys from the king’s lust, denounced the king’s actions and was beheaded on November 15, 1885.
St. Charles Lwanga (1 January 1860 – 3 June 1886) was a 25 year old Ugandan convert to the Catholic Church, who was martyred for his faith. He was a member of the Baganda tribe, Lwanga was born in the Kingdom of Buganda, the central and southern part of modern Uganda, and served as chief of the royal pages and later major-domo in the court of King Mwanga II of Buganda. He became a moral leader. He was a man wholly dedicated to the Christian instruction of the younger boys, became the chief page, and just as forcibly protected them from the kings advances. On the night of the martyrdom of Joseph Mukasa, realizing that their own lives were in danger, Lwanga and some of the other pages went to the White Fathers to receive baptism. Another 100 catechumens were baptized in the week following Joseph Mukasa’s death. St. Charles was baptised by Pere Giraud on 15 November 1885, a year before his death in 1886. The following May, King Mwanga learned that one of the boys was learning catechism. He was furious and ordered all the pages to be questioned to separate the Christians from the others. The Christians, 15 in all, between the ages of 13 and 25, stepped forward. The King asked them if they were willing to keep their faith. They answered in unison, “Until death!” They were bound together and taken on a two day walk to Namugongo where they were to be burned at the stake. On the way, Matthias Kalemba, one of the eldest boys, exclaimed, “God will rescue me. But you will not see how he does it, because he will take my soul and leave you only my body.” They executioners cut him to pieces and left him to die alone on the road, which took at least three days. When they reached the site where they were to be burned, they were kept tied together for seven days while the executioners prepared the wood for the fire. On June 3, 1886, the Feast of the Ascension, St. Charles Lwanga was separated from the others and burned at the stake. The executioners slowly burnt his feet until only the charred remained. Still alive, they promised him that they would let him go if he renounced his faith. He refused saying, “You are burning me, but it is as if you are pouring water over my body.” He then continued to pray silently as they set him on fire. Just before the flames reached his heart, he looked up and said in a loud voice, “Katonda! – My God!,” and died. His companions were all burned together the same day all the while praying and singing hymns until they died. There were 24 protomartyrs in all. The last of the protomartyrs, a young man named John Mary, was beheaded by King Mwanga on January 27, 1887. The persecutions spread during the reign of Mwanga, with 100 Christians, both Catholics and Protestants, being tortured and killed. St. Charles and many other martyrs for the faith died between November 15, 1885 – January 27, 1887 in Namugongo, Uganda. St. Charles and his companions were beatified in 1920 and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964. St. Charles Lwanga is the patron saint of African Catholic Youth Action. Patron Saint of African Catholic Youth Action; converts; torture victims; Courage Apostolate.
PRAYER: O God, who have made the blood of Martyrs the seed of Christians, mercifully grant that the field which is your Church, watered by the blood shed by Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, may be fertile and always yield you an abundant harvest. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever… Amen 🙏🏽
SAINT KEVIN OF GLENDALOUGH, ABBOT: St. Kevin of Glendalough (498-618 A.D.) lived in Ireland during the age of the great early Irish saints, many of whom were his contemporaries. St. Kevin, also known as Coemgen in Ireland was born of noble birth, the son of Coemlog and Coemell of Leinster in 498 AD at the Fort of the White Fountain and baptized by Saint Cronan of Roscrea. His given name Coemgen (anglicized Kevin) means “fair-begotten”, or “of noble birth”. According to tradition, St. Kevin from the age seven was a pupil of Saint Petroc of Cornwall, who had come to Leinster about 492. From age twelve he lived with monks and studied under the Irish monks as a student of St. Eonagh and eventually became a monk himself. Among his friends were St. Comgall, St. Columba, St. Cannich, and St. Kieran. After his ordination he lived a penitential life as a cave-dwelling hermit for seven years in Glendalough Ireland (meaning glen of two lakes).
Word of his holiness spread, and he attracted a group of followers which led him to found the famous monastery at Glendalough to teach the people of Ireland about God. Because of his fame this remote spot became a town and then a city, with offshoots of several other monastic foundations rising up around it. He served as abbot at Glendalough, and once the monastery was well-established he withdrew to live as a hermit again for four years. He was then called back to Glendalough, and continued to serve as abbot there until his death at age 120. He died on June 3, 618 AD, Glendalough and was Canonized in 1903 (cultus confirmed). St. Kevin has many legends surrounding him involving wild animals obeying his commands, seeking him for refuge, and helping him feed others. Blackbird is even said to have made a nest in his prayerfully outstretched hands. His life is surrounded by many extravagant miracles. St. Kevin is the Patron Saint of blackbirds, Glendalough, the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland, Glendalough, Kilnamanagh. His feast day is June 3rd
PRAYER: Saint Kevin, you were privileged to live in the Age of Saints, O Father Kevin being baptized by one saint, taught by another and buried by a third. We celebrate your saintly and holy life. You lived a life filled with a wonderful reverence and awe of all living things. Let us imitate the respect and appreciation you showed toward life in all its forms, and to see the presence of God in all his Creations. Pray to God that He will raise up saints in our day to help, support and guide us into the Way of salvation. Amen🙏🏽
SAINT CLOTILDA, QUEEN OF FRANCE: Saint Clotilda (Clotilde) was Queen of the Franks, born in Lyons France, probably around the year 470 or 474. St. 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. In 493, she married the Salian Frankish king Clovis I, who used their alliance as a means of strengthening his position with the Romanized Celts. Clovis had already defeated several minor Frankish kings in Gaul and the Rhineland and established himself as the sole Frankish king and founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. St. Clotilda was instrumental in the King’s conversion, converting him to Christianity on Christmas Day in 496. With her husband King Clovis (c. 466-511) she founded the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Franks for over 200 years. She is credited with bringing Christianity to Europe. Queen Clotilde was known for her charitable and penitential works of mercy.
Although not a Christian himself, Clovis allowed his Catholic Christian wife to baptize their children. His tolerance of Catholic Christianity angered other Germanic tribes, who were either pagans or Arians. In 496, while fighting the Alemanni tribes, Clovis prayed to “Clotilde’s God” and promised to convert if victorious in battle. On Christmas Day of 496, Bishop St. Remigius (St. Remy) of Reims baptized Clovis I, supposedly with about 3,000 of his followers. Clovis and Queen Clotilde chose Paris as their capital city, where the monarchs founded the Church of the Apostles, later known as St. Genevieve. The famous prince, Clovis died on the 27th 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. Upon Clovis’s death in 511, Clotilde was extremely wealthy but powerless to control her rebellious children. King Clovis I had divided his kingdom among his four sons Theodoric I, Clodomir, Childebert I and Clothaire I but each desired the others’ kingdoms. Clodomir was murdered, and Clotilde took his three sons under her care. Nevertheless, her son Clothaire murdered two of the boys, his own nephews. Clotilde secreted the youngest, five-year-old Clodoaldus, to a monastery at Versailles, where he grew to become St. Cloud. Her daughter, also named Clotilde, was forced to marry the Arian Visigoth king Amalaric, who treated her cruelly. Childebert murdered Amalaric to avenge his sister, but Clotilde II died on her way back to Paris. Mortified at her children’s sins and unable to change their ways, Queen Clotilde retired to the Abbey of St. Martin of Tours, where she lived the rest of her life near the tomb of St. Martin of Tours. 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, penance, service to the sick and the poor, seeming to forget that she had been queen. Her sons’ quarrels caused her great sorrow. 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. 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. Historians attribute the founding of churches at Laon, Andelys and Rouen to Clotilde. She’s Patron Saint of brides, adopted children, parents, exiles, widows and skin disease.
PRAYER TO ST. CLOTILDA: Hail, gentle and loving St. Clotilde, sweet illustrious Queen of the Franks, who by thy faith and perseverance in the Lord didst convert thy husband and made France for many centuries a venerable stalwart of the Catholic faith, I implore thy powerful intercession in this my great need. Assist me, holy St. Clotilde, from thy height of glory in heaven. Thou, who during thy earthly sojourn, didst drink deeply from the Saviour’s chalice of sorrows, have pity on my dire distress, especially . . . (Here make your intention). Grant also that through my sorrows I may, like thee, purify my faith and never lose hope in the mercy of God. Amen🙏🏽