By Tom Thomas –
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Job 1:8
Most of us are familiar with the Book of Job. It is almost incomprehensible that one could lose every material blessing and even family members and still kept praising the Lord right through. Yet this is what Job did.
The book of Job is always sought after when the eternal question strikes us, humans, “Why bad things happen to good people?” Even Jesus pleaded before the Father, “Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me!”
Yet there are many giants in the Church who could have referred to this book for consolation in times of desolation, but we may not have recorded them for posterity. In India, we don’t have to look very far to see the example of Devasahayam Pillai, to become the first Indian Catholic layperson ( and also the first married person) to be canonized as a Saint by Pope Francis this Sunday, May 15th.
The remarkable aspect about Devashayam is that he was a late convert to the faith, lived the Catholic faith for only seven years, suffered for it intensely for three years and ultimately was martyred for his faith. In the manner he lived his life and faced his death he inspired thousands of people by his Christian faith.
Let us go into the era of the mid-1700s, in Travancore state, India. Neelakanta Pillai, a Brahmin, who, as an influential and trusted Palace official under the Travancore Maharaja Marthanda Varma , had a turn of misfortune. He lost all his material blessings with the failure of successive harvests and was wondering what was wrong. This is when he relied on the advice of Eustachius De Lannoy (also called Captain Lannoy), commander of the Travancore Army under Maharaja Marthanda Varma. Lannoy, a captured Dutch Naval officer of French Catholic origins, was the mastermind of the Nedumkotta fortifications and many other innovative strategies which helped the Travancore kingdom withstand attacks from various quarters.
Both Lannoy and Pillai served the same master – the Maharajah of Travancore. Both were very diligent in their work and grew close to each other as friends. Lannoy educated Pillai on matters of the Catholic faith including reading the scriptures and the Book of Job that Pillai found solace in, despite his material reversal of fortunes. Pillai got converted to the Catholic Faith as a result of his interactions with Lannoy. He was baptized into the faith by Jesuit Missionary Father Giovanni Battista Buttari after nine months of preparations by a lay catechist Gnanapragasam Pillai. Thus, Neelakanta became Devasahyam. Pillai’s wife, Bhargavi Ammai also became a Catholic. But Devashayam had to suffer great persecutions for his conversion, ultimately leading up to his martyrdom in 1752. The struggles that he had with the ruling powers in Travancore and the caste system prevalent at that time are well documented and are not dwelt upon in this article ( References are given at end for further reading). At all times, right to the very end of his life, Devasahyam is never recorded to have treated his persecutors with anything other than respect and dignity, or to have regretted his conversion to the Catholic faith, despite severe and extended torture over years.
Lannoy, after a long period of distinguished service to the Maharajah of Travancore, passed away in 1777 and is buried in the Udayagiri Fort. The English translation of the Latin inscription on his tomb reads:
“Here lies Eustachius Benedictus De Lannoy: who was Commander of the general Travancore Army and for nearly thirty-seven years with the greatest faithfulness served the King, to whom by the strength and fear of his armies he subjugated all kingdoms from Kayangulam [Kayamkulam] to Cochin. He lived 62 years and 5 months and died first day of June 1777. May he rest in peace.”
We owe it to Lannoy for sparking the interest in this most unlikely candidate (at the beginning of his life) for becoming India’s first Catholic layperson (and married) Saint. The light of Christ must have shone through Lannoy’s life so strongly that it sparked the curiosity and interest of Devashyam to know more and more about the faith of Lannoy, and ultimately Devasahyam was martyred for this faith. The role of Lannoy and the lay catechist Ganapragasam Pillai in giving such a strong foundation to the faith of Devasahyam is something that as a Christian one needs to ponder upon. Are our own life and examples leading others around us to Christ or away from Christ? Do we have a personal experience “Job-like” to provide from our life-style?
The take way from the life of Devashayam Pillai is that becoming a Christian does not mean one’s cross will be taken away, rather, that one would get the strength to bear one’s cross, no matter how great they are. And in bearing this cross, others will in turn be led to the cross: The Way, The Truth and The Life.
Devasahayam Pillai, we seek your blessings to have the strong faith within us always that will help us carry our crosses in our Christian life as you did so well right to the very end.
References
- Martyr Devasahayam: A Saint for our times by Rev Fr John Kulandai, Vidyajyoti Journal, Vol 86, No 84, April 2022
- Blessed Devasahayam Pillai – The First Lay Indian Martyr – Indian Catholic Matters