Vatican City: Devasahayam Pillai became the first Indian layman to be canonised by Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sunday.
Devasahayam was recommended for the process of Beatification by the Vatican in 2004, at the request of the Kottar diocese, Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India.
Pope Francis canonised Blessed Devasahayam Pillai along with nine others during a Canonisation Mass in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
Devasahayam Pillai was born into an affluent Nair-caste family at Nattalam in the present-day Kanyakumari District, on 23 April 1712.
He was an official in the court of Travancore’s Maharaja Marthanda Varma.
Devasahayam Pillai converted after being interested in the Christian faith that a Dutch naval officer who was sent on command of a naval expedition by the Dutch East India Company with the objective of capturing and establishing a trading port at Colachel was practicing.
Pillai converted in the year 1745 and assumed the name Devasahayam, which is the Christian name ‘Lazarus’ in the local language. “Lazarus” or “Devasahayam” in Malayalam, translates to “God is my help”.
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