By Rita McInerney

An icon depicting the martyrdom of St. Charles Lwanga and 21 companions in Uganda in 1886 will be dedicated and hung in St. Paul of the Cross Church, 551 Harwell Road, NW, Atlanta, on Sunday, June 20 during the 11:30 a.m. liturgy. The feast day of the saint is June 3.

The icon was painted by Brother Michael Moran, CP, of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Isle, Shelter Island, N.Y., at the request of Father Tom Brislin, CP, pastor, who wanted something that would appeal to the youth of the parish. Brother Moran researched and worked on the painting for almost a year.

“I asked him to do Charles as someone who would evoke pride in their blackness and also in their Catholicity,” Father Brislin said.

According to “Saints of the Day,” Vol. 1, by Leonard Foley, OFM, Charles and the 21 other young men were pages at the court of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga. The ruler, angered at the young men’s refusals to submit to his immoral desires and demands, had them imprisoned. Charles, a catechumen when he entered the royal household as assistant to Joseph Mukaso, head of the court pages, encouraged the others to reject the ruler’s demands. Later, when they were jailed, he encouraged and instructed them in the Catholic faith.

On the night Mukaso was martyred for encouraging African youths to resist Mwanga, Charles requested and received baptism. Imprisoned with his friends, his courage and belief in God inspired them to remain chaste and faithful.

For his own unwillingness to submit to immoral acts and his efforts to safeguard the faith of his friends, Charles was burned to death at Namugongo on June 3, 1886, by Mwanga’s order.

The 22 martyrs were canonized by Pope Paul VI on Oct. 18, 1964. On his African tour five years later, he told 22 young Ugandan converts that “being a Christian was a fine thing but not always an easy one,” in recalling the 19th century young men.

Today the republic of Uganda has 5,504,000 Catholics, or 40 percent among a population of 13,620,000 according to the 1985 Catholic Almanac.

Brother Moran used acrylic paint and 23K gold leaf for the 24 by 26-inch painting done on a poplar panel. The figure of St. Charles dominates the Russian-style icon. He wears traditional Ugandan dress in red, yellow and black, colors of the Ugandan flag. In his right hand, he holds a flame, which stands for his burning love for Christ and also the manner in which he died. In his left hand he carries a scroll on which are written some of the words of St. Paul’s message of love to the Corinthians. The companions who surround him hold in their hands the spears and clubs symbolizing how they were killed.

In describing his work, Brother Moran says, “I have tried to depict St. Charles as a gentle young man who radiates an inner strength flowing from his religious convictions and his deep love for Christ. He gazes straight out at the viewer to both confront him with the fact of his own witness to Christ and at the same time to bring the viewer into the whole mystery of the icon,

“I would hope it would provoke the viewer to take a stock of the depth of his or her own commitment to Christ and to enter into that loving relationship with Christ from which St. Charles drew his strength.”

Brother Moran goes on to say that he tried to capture a sense of Africanness of the saint by the native dress and ornaments as well as the tribal nature clustering of his companions around him.

“As in all icons, the gold background and the golden-yellow and white highlights on the painting indicate that this is a man touched by God,” the artist continues in the written description of his work that he sent to Father Brislin.

“The two dimensional quality and stylized rendering of the many elements stand for the fact that what is being represented is on another plane of reality than our everyday human existence.” “While we can recognize these figures as human, and we know that St. Charles and his companions really did exist, they are here depicted in an other than earthly way, indicating that they now enjoy a spiritual existence which is equally real, but wholly other than what we live, but to which we are also called.”

With his written explanation, the artist included a passage from, “Festal Icons of the Lord,” written by Sister Helen Weier, OSC: “A person encountering an icon for the first time may experience ambivalent feelings, a simultaneous attraction and resistance. The profound beauty of the icon is gentle. It does not force its way; it does not intrude. It asks for patience with the uneasiness of early acquaintance. It asks for time spent before it in stillness of gazing. More important, it asks the one praying to allow himself to be gazed upon by it.

“One must yield space within himself to the icon and its persistent beauty. An icon is prayer and contemplation transformed into art. When exquisite art combines with prayer to become a work of worship and wonder, the art has become sacramental. It manifests to us the God who breaks through all signs and symbols with truth.”

When the vivid icon is hung in the front of the church, on the wall by the sacristy door, Father Brislin is hopeful that many of the parents among the 700 families in the parish will take pride in relating its story to their children. He also expects the icon to serve the school students as inspiration for essays and talks.

He has already asked Brother Moran to paint an icon of St. Benedict the Moor, son of black African slaves converted to Christianity. St. Benedict lived and worked in Italy during 16th century as a Franciscan lay brother. He is called the patron saint of black Catholics in North America.

“American black Catholics think of the church as a white church,” Father Brislin says. He is trying to dispel that belief in his own parish.