150th Pilgrimage – Day 1 – Nalukolongo

• • First baptisms of Ugandan women administered by the missionaries themselves were celebrated here.
  • Many young slave boys and girls were ransomed and cared for together with other poor people at this place. This inspired the late Cardinal Nsubuga to found Mapeera Bakateyamba Home (for disabled and needy, 1978) at this place. Two years before (1976), he had founded the Institute of the Good Samaritan Sisters for the same cause with their Mother House at this place. Talking about the vocation of these Sisters, the Cardinal said: “l have abolished the saying that “charity ended with Mapeera”! Let mercy not die with Mapeera, but continue being seen through the charitable works of these girls towards the poor and destitute who will be brought here at Nalukolongo.” (8 December 1978) It is this long tradition of works of charity that in 2015 (28 November) Pope Francis made a pilgrimage to this place in recognition of the importance of the Church’s commitment to reach out to the poor, the handicapped and the sick. On that occasion, he made this appeal: 

“I wanted very much to visit this Home of Charity, which Cardinal Nsubuga founded here in Nalukolongo. This is a place which has always been associated with the Church’s outreach to the poor, the handicapped and the sick. Here, in early times, slave children were ransomed and women received religious instruction (from the missionaries for the first time). | greet the Good Samaritan Sisters who carry on this fine tradition, and | thank them for their years of quiet and joyful service in this apostolate…. Today, from this Home, | appeal to all Parishes and Communities in Uganda and the rest of Africa – not to forget the poor.” (Pope Francis at Nalukolongo)

• • 1886 (13 June): Amidst persecutions and killings of Christians, the missionaries renewed their consecration to B.V. Mary. They signed the act and put it under her statue as they had done at the beginning their mission in Uganda in 1879 (2 July).
  • 1888 (18 October): The Missionaries, after having been imprisoned for five days with the exception of Bro. Amans, were expelled out of the country by the new king Kalema and his Muslim supporters. The mission was completely looted and destroyed such that when they returned in October 1889, they could not come back here.
  • 1893: The remains of Charles Lwanga and Mathias Mulumba which had been buried here in the sacristy of the first church in November 1886, were found after a long search which lasted for many months. Mgr Hirth expressed their joy on that day with these inspiring words:

“I am in a hurry to share with you the joy that Providence willed to fill us yesterday. It is with great gratitude that you will thank the Lord with me. After a number of months of searching, we finally found in the excavations at Nalukolongo, the small box of bones of our Martyrs of 1886. It is five years since it was hidden by the missionaries, at the time of Arab crisis. Surely it is not without divine providence that God has sent to us this precious consolation in the present circumstances.

With this unexpected favour, it is a new era of graces and blessings, which is being announced for our Mission of Nyanza. Let us all bring together our prayers so that we may not remain unworthy of the grace which is announcing itself! Let us call upon our Martyrs and often repeat these invocations: Queen of Martyrs pray for us. All Holy Martyrs, pray for us.” (Mgr Hirth, Letter to missionaries in Tanganyika, 14 November 1893).

NB: These are the only relics of the Uganda Martyrs which were identified for individual martyrs and kept safely. They are the ones carried at Namugongo during the annual pilgrimage procession.

• • 1923 (3rd June) : Blessing and laying of the foundation stone of the Memorial Chapel, by Mgr. John Forbes. It was built in memory of the Uganda Martyrs, Mgr Livinhac and Fr. Mapeera, and dedicated to the Mother of Jesus, Patron Saint of Buganda (Ya Namasole wa Yezu Omuwolereza w’Obuganda). This noble work was initiated and supervised by Fr. Raux Modeste who was then the parish priest of Lubaga.
  • 1929 (3rd June): Memorial Chapel was blessed by Mgr. Arthur Hinsley. It was the first chapel in Uganda to be built in memory of the Uganda Martyrs.
  • 1954: Little Sisters of Jesus (Charles de Foucauld) established themselves at Nalukolongo. Left Uganda in early 1970s.
  • 1991 (29th April): Burial of late Emmanuel Cardinal K. Nsubuga (1914-1991. It was his will to be buried at Nalukolongo with the intention that whoever comes here to pray for his soul, would remember to help the sick and needy in this place.

Card. Nsubuga was a ‘true grandson of the Pioneer Missionaries, especially of Mapeera’. He secured many historical places linked to the pioneer missionaries and the Uganda Martyrs. He brought back to Uganda the remains of Mgr. Livinhac from Algiers, Bro. Amans from Bagamoyo in Tanzania and Fr. Barbot from Zanzibar. He initiated the cause for the beatification of Fr. Simeon Lourdel Mapeera in 1987.

• • Pilgrimage Site: Because of its link with the Uganda Martyrs, hundreds of pilgrims come to this place during the annual pilgrimage to Namugongo in May/June.