"The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." — James 5:16
On Asking a Saint to Pray for You
The Catholic who asks Saint Devasahayam to intercede is not worshipping a creature. He is doing what Christians have done since the first martyrs were venerated at the place of their deaths — he is asking a member of the Body of Christ, one who is now fully alive in God, to join his prayer to the prayer of the One through whom all prayer reaches the Father.
The martyrs are not silent. The Church has always known this. The book of Revelation shows the souls under the altar crying out to God. St. Paul writes that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus — which means the dead in Christ are not separated from Him, and not separated from us, and are not incapable of prayer on our behalf. The communion of saints is not a metaphor. It is the living reality of the Body of Christ, which death does not sever.
Devasahayam is a man of specific intercessory strength. He was a layman who lived the Faith in ordinary life — in a marriage, in political office, in a household. He suffered imprisonment, torture, and judicial murder. He prayed through chains, in darkness, without the sacraments except on three nights in three years. He is close to everyone who has ever found it difficult to pray, difficult to persist, difficult to hold to the Faith when everything around them argues against it.
He hears. Bring him what you carry.
The Approved Prayer
This prayer is approved by the Diocese of Kottar for public and private use in honour of Saint Devasahayam Pillai.
O God, You are wonderful in your saints. You gave Saint Devasahayam the courage to accept Christian faith in a difficult time and in a culture that made it costly, and the grace to witness to that faith through suffering, imprisonment, and martyrdom.
Through his intercession, grant us the courage to live our faith without compromise and without fear, to hold to You through every trial as he held to You through his, and to say at the last, as he said: Jesus, save me.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
The Prayer in Tamil
(For use by Tamil-speaking faithful and in the churches of Kanyakumari District)
இறைவா, உம்முடைய புனிதர்களில் நீர் வியக்கத்தக்கவர். புனித தேவசகாயம் பிள்ளைக்கு நீர் அளித்தீர் கடினமான காலத்தில் கிறிஸ்தவ விசுவாசத்தை ஏற்கும் தைரியத்தை, துன்பம், சிறை, மரணத்திலும் அந்த விசுவாசத்திற்கு சாட்சி பகர்வதற்கான அருளை.
அவரது மன்றாட்டின் வழியாக, எங்கள் விசுவாசத்தை சமரசமின்றி, அச்சமின்றி வாழும் தைரியத்தை எங்களுக்கு அளியும், அவர் உம்மை பற்றிக்கொண்டது போல் ஒவ்வொரு சோதனையிலும் உம்மை பற்றிக்கொள்ள, இறுதியில் அவர் கூறியதுபோல் சொல்ல: இயேசுவே, என்னை காப்பாயாக.
இதை நாங்கள் வேண்டுகிறோம் நம் ஆண்டவராகிய கிறிஸ்துவின் வழியாக, பிதாவோடும் பரிசுத்த ஆவியோடும் என்றென்றும் வாழும் ஒரே கடவுளாகிய அவர் வழியாக.
ஆமென்.
புனித தேவசகாயமே, எங்களுக்காக வேண்டிக்கொள்ளும்.
A Nine-Day Novena
A novena is nine consecutive days of prayer — a form rooted in the nine days the apostles and Mary spent in prayer between the Ascension of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Each day of this novena meditates on one moment of Saint Devasahayam's life, drawing from it a grace to seek for yourself.
Begin each day: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. Kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.
Day One — Birth and Beginnings
Nattalam, 23 April 1712
Devasahayam was born into a world that did not know the God who would claim him. His family, his education, his gifts — all of it was real and good, and none of it was enough. God was already working before Devasahayam knew who God was.
Prayer: Lord, You were present at my birth as You were present at his. Whatever in my life You are already preparing — whatever You are writing in the chapters I cannot yet read — give me the grace to trust that You are there, and to be open to the transformation I cannot yet imagine. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Two — The Providence of Suffering
Devasahayam's losses, and the encounter with De Lannoy
The losses came first. The livestock died, the fields withered, the parikara poojas gave nothing. It was in the wreckage of what he had trusted that Devasahayam became able to hear what De Lannoy had to tell him — about Job, about a God who does not explain suffering but enters it.
Prayer: Lord, You permitted suffering to open what comfort had closed. Whatever I am losing or have lost — whatever emptiness has been made in me that I did not choose — give me the grace to receive it as You gave Devasahayam the grace to receive his: as the ground in which You plant what You intend to grow. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Three — The Nine Months of Instruction
Vadakkankulam, 1744–1745
Fr. Buttari hesitated. The cost was too high, the danger too great, the risk of recantation too real. He tested Devasahayam for nine months — the full measure of the Faith, examined from every angle. Devasahayam did not rush. He received everything the Church could give him before he stood at the font.
Prayer: Lord, give me the patience to receive what You are giving me — to be formed rather than merely informed, to let the Faith enter me deeply rather than remain on the surface. Where I have been hasty, make me patient. Where I have been shallow, make me deep. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Four — Baptism
Vadakkankulam, 14 May 1745
On the day of his baptism Devasahayam was thirty-three years old — the age of Our Lord at His death. He received the name of the man Christ raised from the dead. He died to his old self and rose to new life in the water of the font. Everything that followed — the apostolate, the arrest, the suffering, the martyrdom — flowed from this one act.
Prayer: Lord, I too was baptised. I too received a name in the Church and died and rose in the water. Renew in me today what was given to me then. Give me the grace to live the baptism I have already received — to treat it as Devasahayam treated his: as the foundation of everything, the act that reorders every other act. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Five — The Apostolate
Travancore, 1745–1749
For four years Devasahayam preached through his life — through conversations, through shared meals, through the visible quality of a man who had been changed. He sat at table with everyone. He brought his wife to the Faith. He won souls where he was, with what he had, in the life he was already living.
Prayer: Lord, You do not ask me to leave my life to serve You — You ask me to serve You in my life. Give me the grace of Devasahayam's apostolate: to preach without leaving, to witness without performing, to be the kind of Christian whose change of life is itself the argument. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Six — Arrest and the Stripping of Everything
23 February 1749
They dismissed him from his post, confiscated his property, took his rank, led him backwards through the town with death-flowers on his neck, removed his sacred thread. They stripped him of everything the world had given him. What was left was what baptism had given him, which they could not touch.
Prayer: Lord, everything I have is on loan. The position, the reputation, the security — none of it is mine in any final sense. Give me the freedom of Devasahayam, who lost everything and was not diminished, because what they could not take was greater than what they took. Hold me loosely to the things that can be taken, and tightly to the One who cannot be. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Seven — The Three Years of Chains
1749–1752
For three years Devasahayam was chained to a neem tree, exposed to every weather, sustained by three Communions and by the daily discipline he maintained in iron — morning and evening prayer, Friday fasts, the lives of the saints read in darkness. He did not stop. He could not do much. He did what he could.
Prayer: Lord, there are seasons of life in which I can do very little — in which illness, or circumstances, or grief has reduced my capacity to almost nothing. Give me Devasahayam's faithfulness in the chains: the discipline of the small act, the prayer that does not wait for better conditions, the fast kept when fasting is all that is possible. Sanctify my limitations as You sanctified his. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Eight — The Last Farewell
Aralvaimozhi, January 1752
The lamp was lit. De Lannoy came with his family. Gnanapu Ammaiyar came with her mother and her brother. Devasahayam looked at his wife as one looks at a setting sun, and said: The Lord is calling me. Do not grieve. One day, we will be united again in His heavenly kingdom. He made the Sign of the Cross over her. He entrusted her to the Church.
Prayer: Lord, we will all come to a last farewell. Give me the grace to prepare for it as Devasahayam prepared — to set my affairs in order, to entrust those I love to You and to Your Church, to hold death not as a disaster but as the door You have always been holding open. And in the meantime: help me say what needs to be said to those I love, while I still can. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Day Nine — The Mountain
Muttidichanparai, 14 January 1752
They carried him. He knelt. He prayed. Five bullets. Five words: Jesus, save me. Rocks fell from the mountain. The tongue that had preached the Gospel would not corrupt in the forest. The Church sang the Te Deum. 270 years later, Pope Francis spoke his name in Saint Peter's Square before the whole world.
Prayer: Lord, the grain of wheat fell into the earth and died, and it has borne fruit beyond all measuring. Whatever You are asking of me — whatever cost the Faith is asking of me today — give me the grace of the final act: to kneel, to pray, to speak Your name, and to trust that You will do with whatever I give You what You did with what Devasahayam gave You. Jesus, save me. Saint Devasahayam, pray for us.
Closing prayer (all nine days): God our Father, You glorified Saint Devasahayam and raised him up as a witness to the resurrection. Grant that we who celebrate his memory may imitate his example of fidelity and be witnesses to Your Son in our own time. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Litany of Saint Devasahayam
Lord, have mercy. — Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. — Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. — Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us. — Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, — have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, — have mercy on us. God the Holy Spirit, — have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, one God, — have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, — pray for us. Saint Joseph, patron of the universal Church, — pray for us. Saint Francis Xavier, Apostle of the East, — pray for us. Blessed John de Britto, martyr of India, — pray for us.
Saint Devasahayam,
— Born in Nattalam and formed in the ways of your people, — pray for us. — Instructed in the Faith with patience and with depth, — pray for us. — Baptised at the age of Our Lord's death and given the name of the man He raised, — pray for us. — Husband and companion of Gnanapu Theresa, — pray for us. — Apostle who preached through the quality of your life, — pray for us. — Man who sat at table with everyone and counted no one beneath you, — pray for us. — Official who used your rank for the Kingdom of God, — pray for us. — Prisoner who maintained your daily discipline in iron, — pray for us. — Witness who would not recant through three years of suffering, — pray for us. — Man who refused medical treatment as the sacrificial goat awaiting slaughter, — pray for us. — Intercessor who gave water from a rock to those who were thirsty, — pray for us. — Friend who gave a child to the man appointed to kill you, — pray for us. — Son who looked at his wife as one looks at a setting sun and did not waver, — pray for us. — Martyr who knelt on the mountain and would not stand up again, — pray for us. — Voice that spoke five words as the final testimony: Jesus, save me, — pray for us. — Grain of wheat that fell into the earth and bore fruit beyond all counting, — pray for us. — First layman of India raised to the altars of the Church, — pray for us. — Patron of India and of all who suffer for the Faith, — pray for us. — Model for married Christians living the Faith in the world, — pray for us. — Intercessor for those who are unjustly imprisoned, — pray for us. — Friend of the poor and the marginalised, — pray for us. — Patron of those longing for children, — pray for us. — Patron of those preparing for baptism, — pray for us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, — spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, — graciously hear us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, — have mercy on us.
Pray for us, Saint Devasahayam, — That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray: Lord God, You called Saint Devasahayam from the courts of an earthly king to the court of the King of Heaven, and gave him the grace to bear witness to Your Son through suffering and death. Through his intercession, grant us the courage to hold to You in all circumstances, to live the Faith You have given us without compromise, and to come at last to the place where he stands now — in Your presence, with Your saints, for ever. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
His Particular Intercessions
The Church names patron saints according to the specific contours of their lives — because the man who suffered a particular thing is particularly close to those who suffer the same thing, and because the intercession that flows from a life lived in specific circumstances is most naturally sought by those who share those circumstances.
Seek the intercession of Saint Devasahayam for:
Those who suffer for the Faith — He was arrested, tried, tortured, and killed specifically in odium fidei — in hatred of the Faith. He is close to every Christian who faces hostility, discrimination, or persecution for being Catholic. Bring him the names of persecuted Christians in India and across the world.
Those who are unjustly imprisoned — He spent three years in chains, exposed to every weather, systematically destroyed by a judicial process that was entirely corrupt. He knows this suffering from inside it. Bring him the names of those who are held unjustly.
Married couples — He was a husband. He converted his wife. He walked through the apostolate with her, said his final words to her, entrusted her to the Church in his last act. He is a patron for marriage and for the shared life of faith in a household.
Couples longing for children — The miracle of Peruvilai: the child given to the jailer through Devasahayam's prayer in chains. He has been sought for this intention for 270 years. Bring him this prayer. Ask him to carry it.
Those preparing for baptism — He was instructed for nine months before he stood at the font. He knows what it is to stand at the threshold of the Church and to approach the water with complete seriousness. Catechumens and candidates have a particular friend in him.
Hindu friends and family — He was one of them before he was one of us. He was formed in the Hindu tradition, educated in Sanskrit and Tamil sacred texts, devoted to his ancestral religion — and the grace of God reached him in it and through it and transformed it. He understands, from the inside, the world of the Hindu person who has not yet encountered Christ. Bring him the names of those you love and pray for their conversion as he prayed for those he loved.
The people of India — He is the first layman of India raised to the altars of the Church. He belongs to the whole subcontinent. Every Catholic in India has a patron in him — and every person in India who does not yet know the Faith has an intercessor.
A Short Prayer for Daily Use
Saint Devasahayam, you held to Christ through everything they could do to you. Hold us to Him too. Pray for us. Amen.
The Feast: 14 January
Mark it in your calendar. Observe it as a feast — with Mass if possible, with the approved prayer, with a reading of some portion of his story to those in your household. Teach his name to your children. He is one of ours. He belongs to every Catholic family in the world.
In the Tamil lands, 14 January is Pongal — the harvest festival, the day of first fruits. The Church placed his feast there because he is a first fruit and a harvest: the grain of wheat that fell into the earth and bore fruit beyond all measuring. On Pongal, when the Tamil people offer the first fruits of the new harvest to God, the Church offers the memory of a Tamil man who gave himself as a first fruit, and received in return the life that has no end.
Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift. (2 Corinthians 9:15)
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