A Hindu man from Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, who converted to Christianity in the 18th century, is set to be made. First Indian common man to be declared a saint By the Vatican on May 15, 2022. Devashyam Pillai, who took the name ‘Lazarus’ in 1745, was first given the title of saint for having “endured growing hardships” after deciding to convert to Christianity in February 2020, the Vatican said.
Devashyam is said to have faced harsh persecution and imprisonment after deciding to convert to Christianity, which resulted in his assassination in 1752. While he was declared eligible for the title of saint last year, the Vatican announced the date of the ceremony on Tuesday.
So, what do we know about Devasahyam Pillai?
Born on April 23, 1712 in Nattalam village of Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, Devashyam served in the court of Maharaja Marthanda Varma of Travancore. It was here that he met a Dutch naval commander, who taught him about Catholicism.
In 1745, soon after being baptized, he assumed the name ‘Lazarus’, which means ‘God is my help’. But then he had to face the wrath of the Travancore state, which was against his conversion.
“His conversion did not go down well with the heads of his original religion. False charges of treason and espionage were leveled against him and he was removed from his post in the royal administration,” read a note issued by the Vatican in February 2020. He was imprisoned and subjected to harsh persecution.
“While campaigning, he particularly emphasized the equality of all people irrespective of caste differences. This caused hatred among the upper classes, and he was arrested in 1749,” the Vatican said.
On January 14, 1752, exactly seven years after becoming a Catholic, Devashyam was shot and killed in the Aralvaimozhi forest. Since then, he is widely regarded as a martyr by the Catholic community in South India. His body is now in St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in the Diocese of Kottar.
Why was he given the title of a saint?
In 2004, the Diocese of Kottar in Kanyakumari, along with the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council (TNBC) and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), recommended Devasahaya to the Vatican to be blessed. In February last year, the Vatican announced that he was worthy of the title of saint.
He was declared blessed by the Kottar Diocese in 2012, 300 years after his birth. “In remarks of the day during the afternoon ‘Angeles’ prayer at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI remembered Devasahaya as a ‘faithful layman’. He urged Christians to “join the joy and prayer of the Church in India”. May the new blessed keep the faith of the Christians of that great and great country,” the Vatican’s note said.
What was the controversy about his name?
Devashyam’s ascension to the position of saint was not without controversy. In 2017, two former IAS officers wrote to Cardinal Angelo Amato, who was then the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Cause of Saints, urging him to drop Devashyam’s last name ‘Pillai’ as it was a caste title. However at the time, the Vatican had rejected his request.
It was only in February 2020, when the Vatican approved him for the title of saint, that it dropped ‘Pillai’ from his name, referring to him as ‘Dhanya Devashyam’.
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