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Devasahayam Pillai

Devasahayam Pillai, an 18th-century Hindu convert to Christianity, will be canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, making him the first Indian layman to be declared a saint. Born in Tamil Nadu, he faced persecution for his conversion and was martyred in 1752, becoming a symbol of equality within the Catholic community. His life and teachings emphasize the importance of overcoming caste differences and promoting unity among people.

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31 views2 pages

Devasahayam Pillai

Devasahayam Pillai, an 18th-century Hindu convert to Christianity, will be canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, making him the first Indian layman to be declared a saint. Born in Tamil Nadu, he faced persecution for his conversion and was martyred in 1752, becoming a symbol of equality within the Catholic community. His life and teachings emphasize the importance of overcoming caste differences and promoting unity among people.

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ashraye david
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Devasahayam Pillai

Why in News

Devasahayam Pillai, an 18th-century Hindu convert to Christianity, would be the first Indian
layman (a non-ordained member of the Church) to be made a saint.

Pope Francis will canonize Blessed Devasahayam Pillai, together with six other Blesseds, during a
Canonization Mass in St Peter's Basilica in Vatican on 15th May, 2022.
Vatican City is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church.

//

Key Points

He was born on 23rd April 1712 in the village of Nattalam in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari
District.
Known as Nilakanda Pillai before embracing Christianity, he grew up in an upper caste
family of temple priests.
He went on to serve in the court of Travancore’s Maharaja Marthanda Varma. It was here
that he met a Dutch naval commander, who taught him about the Catholic faith.
He became a Catholic in 1745. Pillai took the Christian name Lazarus, but later came to be
known as Devasahayam (God’s help).
He then faced the wrath of the Travancore state, which was against his conversion.
On 14th January, 1752, just seven years after he became a Catholic, Devasahayam was shot
dead in the Aralvaimozhy forest.

Since then, he has widely been considered a martyr by the Catholic community in
South India.
His body is at Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral in the Diocese of Kottar (Tamil Nadu).
The Church is of the view that his preaching of equality of all people despite caste
differences eventually led to his martyrdom.
He was first approved for sainthood in February 2020 for “enduring increasing
hardships” after he decided to embrace Christianity.
Categorisation of Religion

About:

The world’s primary religions fall into two categories:

Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam


Indian religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and others.
Christianity:

Christianity is the largest, with more than two billion followers.


Christianity is based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and is approximately 2,000
years old.
Its largest groups are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the
Protestant churches, and its sacred text is the Bible.
Over the centuries, Christianity grew in numbers as it spread around the world, often
through missionaries and colonizers.

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