Pope Francis will canonise martyr Blessed Devasahayam Pillai and six other Blesseds on May 15, 2022.
Newsroom (14/11/2021 11:00, Gaudium Press) With the completion of the canonisation process, Devasahayam, who took the name “Lazarus” after embracing Christianity in 1745, will become India’s first lay martyr to be declared a saint.
In fact, Pope Francis will canonise Devasahayam Pillai and six other Blessed during a mass at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on May 15, 2022, according to the announcement was made by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on Tuesday, November 10.
Who is Devasahayam Pillai?
Devasahayam was born into a Hindu family in Kanyakumari district, which was part of the ancient kingdom of Travancore, on April 23, 1712. He was an officer at court when he was instructed in the faith of Catholicism by a Dutch naval commander.
After converting to Christianity, the king’s administration accused Devasahayam of treason and divulging state secrets to rivals and Europeans, and eventually arrested him.
As a method of torture, he was beaten every day with eighty lashes, pepper rubbed on his wounds and nose, exposed to the sun and given only stagnant water to drink.
It is believed that, being very thirsty, he knelt down to pray and, by a miracle, water began to gush out of a small hole in a stone. The well still stands in a church compound in Puliyoorkurichi.
He was shot dead on January 14, 1752, after being banished to the hills of Aralvaimozhy in Kanyakumari district.
Miracle
According to CatholicSaints.Info, the miracle required for the canonisation process happened in 2013 and involves the resumption of the heartbeat of a 24-week-old foetus that had previously stopped.
“The mother, who was Catholic and had a devotion to Lazarus, Devasahayam’s baptismal name, began praying for his intercession for the baby. Within hours, she felt the baby moving and tests showed that the heartbeat had returned. The baby was later born without complications,” reports the website.
