Biography
Gonzaga Gonza
About Gonzaga Gonza
Gonzaga Gonza was a young court page in the kingdom of Buganda. The Kampala archdiocesan account says he was brought from Busoga as a child and later lived at the royal court. The sources disagree about his age at death, so this record does not assign a birth year. He was baptized on 17 November 1885 and became known for charity toward others.
During the persecution of Christian members of the court, Gonzaga was arrested with other believers. The Vatican account says that, as prisoners were led toward execution, he could not walk quickly because his chains could not be removed. He was killed on 27 May 1886 before reaching the place where others in the group died. His death is part of the history of the Uganda Martyrs, which includes Catholic and Anglican Christians.
Paul VI canonized the Catholic martyrs as a group in 1964. Their common Catholic memorial is 3 June, separate from Gonzaga’s date of death. The group remembrance preserves his place among the court’s young Christians without treating the violence of his killing as a spectacle.
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