Biography
Andrew Kaggwa
About Andrew Kaggwa
Andrew Kaggwa is remembered as the leader of King Mwanga’s drummers and a Christian teacher. The Roman Martyrology recalls his instruction of converts and catechumens, followed by his death in 1886.
Paul VI’s canonization account also remembers his care for people affected by plague. It connects his killing with opposition to his Christian teaching.
Historian Kevin Ward places the persecution within the struggle over royal authority, foreign influence and competing religious communities. He names Kaggwa among the Catholic chiefs who died and cautions that these deaths had a complex political setting. That interpretation adds context to the religious accounts without reducing the martyrs’ faith to a political label.
John Paul II recalled the group’s canonization on 18 October 1964. Kaggwa’s individual commemoration is 26 May.
Wondering how to weigh the stories and sources? Learn how to read a saint biography.