By Verghese V Joseph –
As the Church in India prepares itself to celebrate the canonization of India’s first lay martyr, the Latin church has lined up several programmes at the national level to celebrate this unique ecclesial event. On May 15, 2022 (Sunday) in Vatican, Pope Francis will canonize Blessed Devasahayam Pillai at 10.00 am (Italian time), together with six others.
On the preceding day (Saturday), the events connected with the canonization are Vespers (prayer service) on 14 May 2022 in St. Peter’s Basilica, at 5 pm (Italian time), followed by a public meeting with a cultural programme at the Paul VI Hall.
Devasahayam is the first Indian who is acknowledged to have won the crown of martyrdom on Indian soil. He is also the first lay person and the first married person from India to be conferred sainthood. This canonization, therefore, has a special significance for the church in India.
During its 21st Plenary Assembly held in 2009 at Mysore, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) had resolved to request the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to speed up the process of the Beatification, which fittingly came during the Year of Faith in 2012. The Bishops of the 25th Plenary Assembly of the CCBI held at Vailankanni in 2013 voted to include the Martyr’s commemoration as a Memorial in the Liturgical Calendar for India.
The canonization of Martyr Devasahayam comes as a significant blessing for the Church in India, as it is engaged in a Synodal Journey, seeking to make a genuine discernment of the pastoral challenges of today. The event comes as a wonderful opportunity to tell the heroic story of the Martyr especially to the young people, to face courageously the exigencies of Christian life and witness today.
To celebrate this unique ecclesial event, the Church in India has lined up several programmes at the national level:
(a) National Quiz Competition: The CCBI will organize a seven-step national quiz competition on the life and message of the martyr, in collaboration with the Canonization Committee of the Diocese of Kottar.
(b) National Essay Competition: conducted by the Canonization Committee of the Diocese of Kottar, under the auspices of the CCBI. This will be held separately for High School/Higher Secondary School students, College/University students, youth in general and married laity.
(c) A National Hour of Prayer: Akin to the nationwide one-hour prayer service organized during the pandemic period, an Hour of Prayer will be held on Friday, the 24 June 2022, Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, during which we shall consecrate all our families to the Sacred Heart. It is our earnest desire that all our faithful, whether residing in India or living abroad, may join in to pray as one family during that Hour and plead for the intercession of Martyr Devasahayam for our country.
(d) National Thanksgiving Celebration: The Church in India will join in the celebrations taking place in the very place of the martyrdom of Devasahayam, organized by the Dioceses of Kottar and Kuzhithurai on Pentecost Sunday, 5 June 2022 at 4 p.m.
In a communication, the President of Conference of Catholic Bishops of India & Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Most Rev Filipe Neri Ferrão; Vice President, CCBI and Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore, Most Rev George Antonysamy and Secretary General, CCBI and Archbishop of Delhi, Most Rev Anil Joseph Thomas Couto expressed the church’s deep gratitude to God and to all who worked tirelessly, along the years, for the fulfilment of the long process of Canonization.
A Biographical Sketch: Martyr Devasahayam (1712-1752)
The Church in India has today another cause to rejoice: Martyr Devasahayam is to be canonized on 15 May 2022, by Pope Francis, at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. He is the first Indian to obtain the crown of martyrdom on Indian soil and the first lay person in India to be canonized.
Birth and Family: Martyr Devasahayam was born on 23 April 1712, in a hamlet called Nattalam of the former Kingdom of Travancore, present district of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. His father, Vasudevan Namputhiri, was a Brahmin. His mother, Devahi Amma, was a Hindu Nair. The Martyr’s original name was Neelam, expanded to Nilakandan.
An Official Loved by All: Neelam was brought up as a devout Hindu. Besides mastering Tamil and Malayalam, the languages of the people, he also trained himself in the ancient Varma Sastra, archery and the use of weapons of war. Nilakandan started his career as a soldier. Later on, he was an official in the Nilakandaswamy temple at Padmanabhapuram. Additionally, he was also a much appreciated palace official, working in the King’s treasury. Nilakandan married Bhargaviammal, of the village of Mekkodu.
Evangelized by a Catholic Lay Person: While performing his duties as a palace official, Neelam came in contact with a Catholic layman, Eustachius Benedictus De Lannoy, a Dutch military officer, arrested by King Marthandavarma after the Dutch army was defeated at the Port of Colachel in 1741. Nilakandan was, at that precise juncture, overcome by a wave of sadness which was quite visible on his external appearance. When De Lannoy enquired about the reasons for his sadness, Neelam narrated a series of tragedies that had overtaken his family, one after the other. De Lannoy then narrated to him the Old Testament story of Job and explained how God could test the faith of a good man through suffering. Experiencing a healing touch through the narration of the Dutch officer, Nilakandan expressed his desire to become a Christian and requested De Lannoy to instruct him in the Catholic faith. De Lannoy sent him to Vadakkankulam, a hamlet outside the limits of the Kingdom of Travancore, with a letter to Fr. Giovanni Battista Buttari, a Jesuit Missionary, requesting him to receive Nilakandan in the Catholic Church.
For nine months, Fr. Buttari instructed Neelam in the Catholic faith and baptized him in the Church of the Holy Family, Vadakkankulam, on 14 May 1745. At Baptism, Nilakandan was given the name of Devasahayam, a Tamil rendering of the biblical name Lazarus, which means “God has helped.”
A Fervent Catholic Layman and a Lay Missionary: Having joined the Catholic community, Devasahayam soon began to evangelize others and brought some to the Christian faith, starting with his own wife, who took the name of Gnanapu, a Tamil rendering of “Theresa.” The neophyte Devasahayam mingled with people of all status and castes; he repudiated the symbols of his ‘high’ caste and ate and lived with people of ‘low’ birth. Noticing the marked changes in Devasahayam, the high caste people accused him of the crime of betrayal and contempt of religious practices and of insult to gods, to Brahmins and to the royal throne.
A Witness to Catholic Faith: Although various persons of the high caste tried to woo him away from his newly-embraced Christian faith, Devasahayam showed extraordinary fortitude in remaining firm in his decision, to the point of preferring to be tortured or even put to be death for the sake of Christ.
Having heard of this, the King got Devasahayam arrested on 23 Feb. 1749 and locked him up in a very narrow cell, where he was tortured in many ways. He was finally incarcerated in the prison of Aralvaimozhi, on the border between the Kingdoms of Madurai and Travancore.
A Candidate Worthy of Martyrdom: During the years of his captivity, Devasahayam led a life truly worthy of a candidate for sainthood. Every morning and night he would spend a considerable time in contemplative prayer; he fasted on all Fridays and Saturdays, in honour of the death of Christ and of the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, respectively. Whenever a priest visited him, he would make his confession and receive the Holy Eucharist with utmost devotion. He always exuded deep joy and love and respect for everyone.
A Witness by Blood: The people visiting Devasahayam in the prison kept increasing in numbers, leading the King to order that he should be executed secretly. A little before the midnight of 14 January 1752, they took him to the place of execution. Before being shot dead by the soldiers, he knelt and prayed with great recollection.
His body was thrown on the rocks and left there to be eaten by wild animals. His mortal remains were discovered by the Christians, who buried them in front of the main altar of the Church of St. Francis Xavier, which is now the Cathedral of the Diocese of Kottar.
Martyrdom Celebrated: The Bishop of Cochin, under whose jurisdiction most of the Latin Catholics of South India were placed, declared the death of Devasahayam as a martyrdom and wrote a pastoral letter to all the people of his large Diocese, exhorting them to celebrate the martyrdom by ringing church bells and by singing the Te Deum in all the churches. The same Bishop, Clemente José Colaço Leitão, S.J. had the report on the life and martyrdom of Devasahayam included as part of his Ad Limina visit report, dated 15 November 1756.
A Permanent Presence in the Memory of the People: From the day of his death to this very day, Blessed Devasahayam continues to live in the memory of the people of the region and indeed of the entire South India. The story of his martyrdom is narrated year after year through dramas, poems and folklore throughout the Tamil speaking world, including Jaffna in Sri Lanka.
Places connected with the life and death of the Martyr became increasingly important places of pilgrimage for people of all castes and creeds. All these places, e.g. Madathattuvilai, Appattuvilai, Peruvilai, Puliyoorkurichy, Kakkurichy, Pullani, Palliyadi, etc. witnessed mass conversions following the martyrdom of Devasahayam. If the evangelization work of St. Francis Xavier was the main cause of conversions of the people along the coast, the phenomenon of Martyr Devasahayam is the main ingredient in the process of conversion of the people living in the interior villages of South India. Devasahayam is to this day one of the most popular names among Catholics and non-Catholic Christians in Tamil Nadu.
Prayer to Martyr Devasahayam
O Blessed Devasahayam, the first layman to receive the palm of martyrdom in our Indian soil, you patiently bore torments and tortures and willingly sacrificed your life for the love of Christ and thus obtained the joy of eternal life. We praise and thank God for you.
Leaving behind all worldly pleasures, wealth, status, name, fame and glory, you dedicated your life for the preaching of God’s Kingdom. As a true disciple of Christ, you faithfully put into practice the values of the Gospel, particularly equality and fraternity of all people on earth.
Assist us to imitate you in leaving behind all worldly pleasures and help us to live as children of the Kingdom, putting into practice faithfully the values of the Gospel, so that we may one day enter into the eternal Kingdom, to be in your company forever. Amen.
Blessed Martyr Devasahayam, pray for us.