Blessed Devasahayam Pillai (1712–1752), born Neelakanta Pillai in southern India, is a beatified layman of the Catholic Church. Born into a Hindu family in the 18th century, he
converted to Christianity and is considered a martyr of the Christian faith, Pillai was an official in the court of
the king of Travancore, Maharaja Marthanda Varma, when he came
under the influence of Dutch naval commander, Captain Eustachius De Lannoy, who instructed
him in the Catholic faith. He is believed to have been killed by the then Travancore state for upholding his Christian
faith.
In 2004, at the
request of the diocese of Kottar,
Tamil Nadu Bishops' Council (TNBC) and the Catholic
Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI)
recommended Devasahayam Pillai for the process of beatification to the Vatican. Some Hindu groups objected to this
initiative on the grounds that there was no evidence of religious persecution
in Travancore during that period, and that Pillai was executed for sedition. However, documents dating back to the
period of Devasahayam Pillai show that conversion of court officials to
Christianity were not tolerated.
On
June 28, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree regarding the
martyrdom of Devasahayam Pillai and he was referred to as "Venerable".
On 2
December 2012, a ceremony of beatification and declaration of martyrdom was
held in Nagercoil, in the Roman
Catholic diocese of Kottar in Southern India, presided over by Angelo Cardinal Amato, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints, acting as papal delegate. Devasahayam Pillai is the
first lay person to be elevated to the rank of "Blessed" in India
(the step preceding raising a person to Sainthood under the Canon Law of the Catholic Church).
Biography
according to Roman Catholic tradition
Early
life
Devasahayam
Pillai (named Neelakanda Pillai at birth) was born into an affluent Nair-caste
family at Nattalam in the present-day Kanyakumari District, on 23 April 1712. His
father Vasudevan Namboodiri, hailed from Kayamkulam, in present-day Kerala state,
and was working as a priest at Sri Adi Kesava Perumal temple in Thiruvattar in
present-day Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. His mother Devaki Amma hailed
from Thiruvattar in Kanyakumari District. In the Nair matriarchal traditions of
the day, Devasahayam Pillai was raised by his maternal uncle, and was
inculcated with Hindu beliefs and traditions early on.
Devasahayam’s
family had much influence in the royal palace of Maharaja Marthanda Varma, king
of Travancore, and Devasahayam went into the service of the royal palace as a
young man. His capabilities and enthusiasm did not go unnoticed in the palace,
as he was soon put in charge of state affairs as an official under Ramayyan
Dalawa, the Dewan of Travancore.
Conversion
to Christianity
In
1741, Captain Eustachius De Lannoy, a Dutch naval commander, was sent on
command of a Dutch naval expedition by the Dutch East India Company to capture
Colachel, a port under the control of Travancore, and establish a trading post
there. In the battle (Battle of Colachel) that followed between the Travancore
forces and De Lannoy’s men, the Dutch forces were defeated and the men were
either killed or captured. Eustachius De Lannoy, his assistant Donadi and a few
other Dutch soldiers were captured and imprisoned.
De
Lannoy and the Dutchmen were later pardoned by the king, on condition that they
serve in the Travancore army. De Lannoy later earned the trust of the king and
went on to become the commander of the Travancore armed forces, winning many
battles and annexing various neighbouring territories to Travancore.
It
was during their influential roles under the King of Travancore that
Devasahayam Pillai and De Lannoy became well acquainted. De Lannoy’s Christian
faith interested Devasahayam and De Lannoy enlightened him on the faith, leading
to his conversion in 1745
Baptism
On
Devasahayam’s acceptance of the Christian faith, he was baptized at the Roman
Catholic Latin Rite church at Vadakkankulam village (in the present Tirunelveli
District of Tamil Nadu), where the Jesuits had a mission under Rev. Fr. R.
Bouttari Italus S.J. Neelakanda Pillai, his name at birth, was then changed to
Lazar, although he is more widely known by the Tamil & Malayalam
translation Devasahayam (meaning God's help).[15] Pillai was married[3] by this
time to Bargavi Ammal of Travancore. She was also persuaded and converted to
Christianity by her husband. His wife was given the baptismal name of Gnanapoo
Ammaal (equivalent to Theresa in Tamil & Malayalam). Fearing reprisal in
Travancore against her religious conversion, she chose to be a
migrated-resident of this village. Some of Devasahayam Pillai's immediate
family members also received baptism later, after being converted to
Christianity.
Orders
based on accusations and charges
Church
chroniclers say that the Brahmin chief priest of the kingdom, the feudal lords,
members of the royal household and the Nair community brought false charges on
Devasahayam to the Dewan, Ramayyan Dalawa. Pillai was divested of his portfolio
in the administration and was later accused of treason and of divulging state
secrets to rivals and Europeans. He was later arrested and tortured for three
years. After his execution orders were passed, he was initially ordered to be
taken on a buffalo to Kuzhumaikkad, where he would be executed. But the
original Royal order was altered later to finally to be taken on a buffalo back
to Aralvaimozhy border for a meaningful punishment of banishment after carrying
out a series of tortures by ten different karyakkars on the advice of the
ministers.
Other
traditions and beliefs
Devasahayam
Pillai was marched from Padmanabhapuram Palace to Aralvaimozhy by soldiers,
over the period of a few days. Pillai was treated like a cruel criminal and as
was customary in those days for very cruel criminals, his body was painted with
red and black spots, and was intentionally marched through populated areas,
sitting backward on top of a water buffalo (the mythical vehicle or vahana of
Yama, the lord of death in Hinduism) through the streets of South Travancore.
As a method of torture, he was beaten everyday with eighty stripes, pepper
rubbed in his wounds and nostrils, exposed to the sun, and given only stagnant
water to drink.
While
halting at Puliyoorkurichi, not far away from the Padmanabhapuram Palace of the
Travancore king, it is believed by Christians that God quenched his thirst by
letting water gush through a small hole on a rock, the very place where he
knelt to pray. The water hole is still found in the compound of a church at
Puliyoorkurichi, about 15 km from Nagercoil.
It
is also believed that the leaves of a neem (Margosa) tree in the village of
Peruvilai, to which he had been tied while being marched to Aralvaimozhy, cured
illnesses of sick people in the village and around. Many more miracles are
attributed to Devasahayam Pillai.
Death
In
1752, the original order of the King and his Dewan was to deport him from
Travancore, into the Pandya country, at Aralvaimozhy. He was let off in the
forested hills near Aralvaimozhy. There, he is believed to have begun deep
meditations, and the people from the adjacent villages began visiting the holy
man. Christian sources allege that at this time, high caste Hindus plotted to do
away with Devasahayam.
Some
people believe that the soldiers went up the forested hills and tried to shoot
Devasahayam, but were unable to fire; after which he took the gun in his hands,
blessed it and gave it back to the soldiers to shoot him to death, if they
wished to. The soldiers took the gun back and fired at him five times. His body
was then carelessly thrown out near the foothills at Kattadimalai.
It was at Kattadimali
in Kanyakumari district that Devasahayam Pillai died on 14 January 1752.His
mortal remains were interred near the altar inside St. Xavier's Church, Kottar,
Nagercoil, which is now the diocesan Cathedral.
Since the days of the
interment of the mortal remains of Devesahayam Pillai many Christian pilgrims
visited his tomb and offered prayers.
Canonization
efforts
According
to the report submitted by the then Bishop of Cochin (under whom Kanyakumari
church was then functioning) in 1756 CE, the Christian martyrdom of Devasahayam
Pillai was promptly intimated to Vatican. Prominent witnesses to his
saintliness and martyrdom include Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar.
In
1780, Kariattil Ouseph Malpan submitted a petition to the Vatican for
canonization of Devasahayam Pillai.
The church historian C.
M. Agur concluded in 1903 that although apostasy was never considered illegal
in Travancore, it was not viewed indifferently, particularly in the case of the
King's palace servants, and this led to the martyrdom of Devasahayam Pillai.
In 1984, a group of lay
persons from the diocese of Kottar, especially members of Nagercoil Catholic
Club, once again took the initiative to seek the beatification of Devasahayam. This
is unusual for a layman, but he is regarded as one who was totally devoted to
Christ.At the beginning of the 21st century, many Christian devotees were
offering prayers at his tomb in St. Xavier's Cathedral of the diocese of
Kottar.
After a series of
initiatives by the diocese of Kottar and much deliberation, the Catholic
Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), Tamil Nadu Bishops' Council (TNBC), later
in 2004, duly recommended his beatification, following scrutiny of available
historical evidence, in consultation with others. Bishop Chrysostom said that
the CBCI did not intend any controversy whatsoever in moving this forward.
Professor A. Sreedhara
Menon (1925–2010), a noted historian and writer on Travancore, said that no
cases of persecution in the name of religious conversion were recorded in the
history of the kingdom.[6] P. Parameswaran, president of the Hindu spiritual
organisation Vivekananda Kendra, accused the CBCI of an attempt to hurt Hindu
sentiments. Referring to the Travancore state manual, he insisted that
Devasahayam was a palace employee who was executed after confirmation of
sedition, because he had tampered with palace records and passed them to De Lannoy.
However, Catholic
records of the time state that the kingdom of Travancore did not tolerate
palace officials converting to Christianity.
In June 2012, Pope
Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues" – a
major step towards beatification – and Pillai was then referred to as
"Venerable".
Beatification
and declaration as a martyr
Devasahayam
Pillai was declared a Martyr and Blessed on December 2, 2012, at a solemn
ceremony held in the Diocese of Kottar at Carmel Higher Secondary School
Grounds, Nagercoil, near the place of his burial. The Prefect of the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Angelo Cardinal Amato presided at the
function as Delegate of Pope Benedict XVI.
Several cardinals,
archbishops and bishops from India and elsewhere, as well as numerous priests,
religious men and women and over 100,000 Catholics from all over India
participated in the grand ceremony which included a Solemn Pontifical Mass.
Among the dignitaries
officiating at the altar were Angelo Cardinal Amato, Oswald Cardinal Gracias
(Archbishop of Mumbai), Telesphore P. Cardinal Toppo (Archbishop of Ranchi),
George Cardinal Alencherry (Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church),
Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholicos (Major Archbishop of Syro-Malankara
Catholic Church), Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio (Apostolic Nuncio to India),
and Bishop Peter Remigius (Bishop of Kottar).
Blessed Devasahayam
Pillai is the first lay person from India to be canonised by the Catholic
Church.
On the same day as
Devasahayam Pillai was declared a Blessed in the Diocese of Kottar, India, Pope
Benedict XVI addressed the pilgrims gathered in Rome. During his Angelus
Message the Pope mentioned the event in Italian and English.[24] He said in
Italian:
"Today
in Kottar, India, Devasahayam Pillai, a faithful layman, who lived in the 18th
century and died a martyr, was proclaimed Blessed. Let us join in the joy of
the Church in India and pray that this newly Beatified sustain the faith of the
Christians of that great and noble country."
Then he addressed the
crowds in English:
"I
welcome all gathered here today to pray with me. I especially greet the people
of Kottar who celebrate today the beatification of Devasahayam Pillai. His
witness to Christ is an example of that attentiveness to the coming of Christ
recalled by this first Sunday of Advent. May this holy season help us to centre
our lives once more on Christ, our hope. God bless all of you!"
Places
of interest
Devasahayam
Pillai is buried in the Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier at Kottar in Nagercoil.
Devasahayam's tomb has been restored and beautified in view of the declaration
of martyrdom and beatification.
Devasahyam Pillai’s
clothes and other belongings are kept in a church in the small town of
Vadakkankulam in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu State, India. They are
exposed at the church on 15 August every year, the feast of the Assumption of
Mary. His wife was buried in the cemetery there.
Puliyoorkurichi,
location of the water fountain believed to have quenched Devasahayam’s thirst,
is on the Nagercoil–Trivandrum highway.
Aralvaimozhy, where
Devasahayam was killed, is on the Nagercoil–Tirunelveli highway. At that spot
on the hillock (called Kaattadimalai), devotees believe that rocks fell and
were broken at that moment. One rock at the place makes bell-like sounds when
knocked with a stone.
References:_ wikipedia
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