Who was Devasahayam Pillai, first Indian layman to be declared Saint by Pope Francis?

The head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State Pope Francis on Sunday declared Devasahayam Pillai a saint. Devasahayam Pillai was born a Hindu in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and embraced Christianity in the 18th century. He became the first Indian layman to be declared a saint by the Vatican on Sunday. 

In 2004, the Vatican approved Devasahayam for Beatification at the request of the Kottar diocese, the Tamil Nadu Bishops' Council, and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India.

During a Canonisation Mass in St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Pope Francis canonised Blessed Devasahayam Pillai and nine others. Pope Francis recognised a miracle ascribed to Devasahayam Pillai in 2014, paving the way for his canonization in 2022. Devasahayam Pillai at the end of the process, who took the name “Lazarus” after embracing Christianity in 1745, became the first layperson from India to become a saint.

Devasahayam Pillai’s earlier life

Devasahayam Pillai was born on April 23, 1712, as Neelakanta Pillai into a Hindu Nair family, at Nattalam in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. Earlier Tamil Nadu was a part of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom.

Back then, Pillai was an officer in the court of Travancore’s Maharaja Marthanda Varma when he was instructed into the Catholic faith by a Dutch naval commander.

Devasahayam Pillai took the name ‘Lazarus’, however, both Devasahayam and Lazarus in Malayalam translate to ‘God is my help’.

Meanwhile, a note prepared by the Vatican earlier stated, “ While preaching, he particularly insisted on the equality of all people, despite caste differences. This aroused the hatred of the higher classes, and he was arrested in 1749. After enduring increasing hardships, he received the crown of martyrdom when he was shot on 14 January 1752.”

Devasahayam Pillai was shot dead in the Aralvaimozhy forest on January 14, 1752. He was widely considered a martyr and his mortal remains were laid to rest inside Saint Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Kottar, Nagercoil. 

Sites directly linked with Pillai’s life and death are in Kottar Diocese, in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. On the other hand, Devasahayam Pillai was declared Blessed in Kottar, 300 years after his birth on December 2, 2012.