Venerable Voices: St. Devasahayam Pillai

Today is the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, but it’s also the feast day of one of the martyrs portrayed in the Chapel mural: Saint Devasahayam Pillai!

Saint Devasahayam lived in southern India in the 18th Century. Born into a wealthy Hindu family, he became an accomplished soldier and military officer. Through a series of important encounters, he and his wife became Catholic in 1745, and he became an outspoken evangelist and critic of the inhumane aspects of the caste system. Accused of being a “most virulent defender of the Christian faith” (1), he was imprisoned and condemned to death by the very king he had spent his adult life serving. After his execution was miraculously prevented several times, Devasahayam was tortured, exiled, and ultimately martyred in Kattadimalai in 1752.

Like Blessed Stanley Rother, Saint Devasahayam gave a powerful witness to the reality of Christ in both his life and his death. And, like Blessed Stanley, Devasahayam was beatified (and canonized) in the 21st Century. As a Martyr and Saint, he is included in the mural in the apse of the Stanley Rother Chapel. St. Devasahayam is portrayed kneeling in chains with his arms crossed over his chest, just as he is portrayed at his tomb in the St. Xavier Cathedral in Kottar.

May St. Devasahayam Pillai intercede for us, that we may courageously live the Catholic faith at all times for the salvation and sanctification of ourselves and of the whole world.

(1) Akkara, A. (2022, June 9). St. Devasahayam: A unique lay martyr. National Catholic Register. https://www.ncregister.com/news/st-devasahayam-a-unique-lay-martyr
(2) Franciscan Media. (n.d.). Saint Devasahayam Pillai. https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-devasahayam-pillai/