Publisher's Synopsis
Bishop James Hannington (1847-1885) was an Anglican missionary, saint and martyr. On 1 March 1874 he was ordained as a deacon, and took charge of the small parish of Trentishoe in Devon. He offered himself to the Church Missionary Society and in June 1884, he was ordained bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, and in January 1885, Hannington departed for Africa. After arriving at Freretown, near Mombasa, Kenya, he decided to focus on opening a new route to Uganda: together with his team, he safely reached a spot near Victoria Nyanza on 21 October, but his arrival had not gone unnoticed, and under the orders of King Mwanga II of Buganda, the missionaries were imprisoned in Busoga by Basoga chiefs. After eight days of captivity, by order from King Mwanga II, Hannington's men were killed, and on 29 October 1885, Hannington himself was stabbed in both sides. Joseph Mukasa, a Roman Catholic priest and an official at Mwanga's court, rebuked the king for the deed, and was beheaded for it. Hannington and his companions were among the first Martyrs of Uganda.
