The Catholic church has put in a bid at Rome in Italy to make saints, three women killed at the same time as other Martyrs for their faith.
Mostly men, 22 young Catholic converts were martyred in Namugongo and other places between 1885 and 1887. All men, either slaughtered or burnt alive on the orders of Kabaka Basamulaekere Mwanga II.
However, three brave women namely Claira “Kalaala” Nalumansi, Kabaka Mwanga’s biological elder sister, a one Musubika, and Cecilia Nalusiba are recorded in the Catholic church annals as having given up their lives for their faith.
Rev. Fr Joseph Mukasa Muwonge, the promoter of the Martyrs’ devotion says among the three, Princess Nalumansi, was executed at the same time as other canonized martyrs.
Muwonge says that they have already gathered and documented all of the essential information on the three women’s causes for beatification and eventual canonization, and that authorities in Rome are yet to respond to each of these women’s cases.
“Even Nalumansi, everything is before Rome , but we are yet to get an official communication,We sent what we thought could be of help in the process of canonization but we wait for the voice of the holy father,”Muwonge says
Nalumansi reportedly converted to Islam first, then changed her mind in 1886 and joined the Roman Catholic Church. It is alleged that during her conversion, Nalumansi burnt certain family fetishes, which irritated Mwanga, who dispatched a group of men to bring her before him in his Palace.
The men found Nalumansi in Kazo, Bwaise, but she resisted being dragged before her brother by drawing a gun and firing a bullet into the air.
One of the men reportedly shot at her in a panic .She was later buried nearby, and a church and a school—Emmanuel College Kazo—have been constructed near her burial grounds.
Nalumansi’s sculptor was included in the Uganda martyr’s museum at the Anglican site.
Two other women were killed much later in the early 1900s.
Rev. Fr. Muwonge says although Kabaka Mwanga II despised christian converts with venom, he had issued an express order that no woman should be killed.
But Mwanga’s request was not fully heeded to as his elder sister, also Muteesa ’s most beloved child, was not spared.
Muwonge says that the Kabaka thought that women would give up on their faith in the new religion if they saw men suffering or being killed.
Muwonge claims that they were instead tortured and subjected to a great deal of abuse as a result of their faith.
“If they killed women, they would have contributed to a bigger number of saints, But Mwanga gave the orders not to kill them, he thought that they would give up their faith if they saw men die. He also asked that whites are not killed for fear of destroying Buganda Kingdom” said Muwonge
Cecilia Nalusiba of Bisanje Parish, Masaka Diocese, is the third female ‘martyr’ nominated for sainthood. According to available information obtained from a book titled “Obulamu Bwabajulizi, the first volume written by Fr Timothy Mary Ssemogerere, Nalusiba was killed by a male who sought to entice her to intercourse. She is however said to have refused, claiming that it was against her faith, and she was slain as a result.
The church, according to Rev Fr Muwonge,
//Cue in; “Clara Nalumansi
Cue out…the Holy Father.”//
In the Catholic church, martyrdom for Christ’s sake is a cause of its own merit for one to be named Saint. However, to be canonized, there is a requirement for miracles where a person has sincerely sought the candidate’s intercession. The miracles are evaluated by independent experts and a panel of theologians and Cardinals of the Congregation of Causes of Saints.
In the case of Uganda martyrs, there are two miracles that made it possible including nuns who healed from Bubonic plague (kawumpuli) which at the time had no known cure. The other is the case of Revocato Kalema, who was born with curved legs but got healed through the intercession of the martyrs.
The Cause of Beatification of Uganda martyrs was opened in 1906 but a diocesan tribunal had been set up in 1887, six months after their death, to gather information about the circumstances surrounding the case. In 1920, the congregation for the causes of the Saints in Rome voted in favor of the Martyrs’ beatification, and three weeks later, Pope Benedict XV granted it. But it was not until 1964 that the 22 Catholic martyrs were canonized, 78 years after their martyrdom.
Currently, the Catholic Church in Uganda is also advocating for the beautification and canonization of Monsignor Aloysius Ngobya, and Sister Amedeo Byabali of Bwanda Convent. The two have been elevated to servants of God. A separate process has been set into motion to fast-track the canonization of Fr. Siméon Lourdel (Mapeera), the first catholic priest to preach the gospel on Ugandan soil.
