Pope Francis canonised Devasahayam Pillai as a Catholic Saint during an event in St Peter’s Basilica.
Who was Devasahayam Pillai?
- Devasahayam was born on April 23, 1712 in Nattalam village in Kanyakumari district, and went on to serve in the court of Marthanda Varma of Travancore.
- After meeting a Dutch naval commander at the court, Devasahayam was baptised in 1745, and assumed the name ‘Lazarus’, meaning ‘God is my help’.
His works
- While preaching, he particularly insisted on the equality of all people, despite caste differences.
- His conversion did not go well with the heads of his native religion.
- False charges of treason and espionage were brought against him and he was divested of his post in the royal administration.
- On January 14, 1752, Devasahayam was shot dead in the Aralvaimozhy forest.
- Since then, he is widely considered a martyr, and his mortal remains were interred inside what is now Saint Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Kottar, Nagercoil.
Other canonized saints in India
- Of the eleven, Gonsalo Garcia, born in India to Portuguese parents in Mumbai in 1557, is considered to have been the first India-born saint.
- In 2008, Kerala-born Sister Alphonsa was declared as the first woman Catholic saint from India.
- Mother Teresa had a fast track to sainthood when she was canonized in 2016.
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