Image based on a 16th century funerary monument, now embedded in the floor of St. Andrew's Church in Oddington, Oxfordshire.
Above in macabre image of a skeleton crawling with worms an inscription reads, "VERMIBUS HIC DONOR ET SIC OSTENDERE CONOR QUOD SICUT HIC PONOR: PONITOR OMNIS HONOR" ("Here I am, given to the worms, and thus try to show, that as I am laid aside here so is all honour laid aside.").
St Charles Lwanga
oil on carved wood, 2022
9″ x 28″
Charles Lwanga (1 January 1860– 3 June 1886) was a Ugandan convert who was martyred with 21 of his peers and is revered as a saint by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.
Lwanga was born in the Kingdom of Uganda, in the central and southern part of modern Uganda, and served as chief of the royal pages and in the court of King Mwanga II. He was baptised by Pere Giraud on 15 November 1885.
In an effort to resist a Christian worldview that undermined the authority of his office, King Mwanga II executed many Anglicans and Catholics between 1885 and 1887, including Lwanga and other officials in the royal court.