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Devasahayam and de Lennoy - Laymen 11. The story of Devasahayam is the story of a layman apostle and a layman martyr. It was a Catholic layman, captain Eusthachius Benedictus de Lannoy from the then northern part of France, captured at the battle of Colachel between the Dutch forces and the Thiruvithancoor army in 1741, who revealed to Neelakanda Pillai the face of the God of Jesus Christ. Background of his Conversion 12. At a certain stage in his life, when Neelakanda Pillai was sunk into a state of deep depression over incessant losses of material possessions in his family, the Catholic captain approached him gently and revealed to him the Christian meaning of human suffering , starting with the Old Testament patriarch Job. What probably appealed to Neelakanda Pillai in the story was the sense of absolute and unconditional confidence in God in the face of humanly unbearable adversities and tragedies - something which he missed in his knowledge and praxis of his own Hindu faith. Christian, the lowest and the poorest 13. The majority of the Christians at the time in the State of Thiruvithancoor were, by the Indian standard of estimation among the "lowest" and the poorest people of the region. Conversion of high people a serious threat As long as the Christian religion was confined to these poorest of peoples there was no serious threat to the social order which was governed by the Hindu laws and prescriptions. Conversion of high caste people to Christianity was feared as it would upset the existing order of things and it was firmly and generally believed by everyone that unity of religion, especially among the people of higher castes, was the surest guarentee against fissiparous trends in society in general. Conversion lanned 14. Hence there was a virtual ban on fresh conversion of people to the Christian faith, expecially conversion of people of higher castes like the Nairs, of whom Neeelkanda Pillai was one. As Paolino and others amply testify, there was not only ban on new conversions but frequent and severe persecutions of those already converted, except the fisher people who were now Christians for more than two centuries. Why Baptism outside the territory 15. De Lennoy, therefore, had to send Neelakanda Pillai to be baptised at Vadakkankulam outside the territory of Thiruvithancoor and which was then under a Muslim governor appointed by the Muslim Nawab of Arcot. 16) Neelakanda Pillai came with a letter of request from de Lannoy to Fr. J.B. Buttari, S.J. the superior of the newly opened Jesuit mission at Neman which at that time included the ancient Christian congregation of Nadar and Vellalar Catholics at Vadakkankulam. Baptised by Rev. Fr. J.B. Buttari, S.J. 17. The Jesuit superior, knowing the unwritten law of the land that the king could "imprison and even kill any nobleman who shall quit the royal court to become a Christian" and fearing that the holy faith might soon be tarnished or abandoned, was far from forthcoming to baptize Neelakanda Pillai who continued in expression his deep desire to be transformed through the sacrament of baptism. His new name Devasahayam 18. And when the Jesuit superior finally agreed to baptize him, Neelakandan was given a "Christian" name Devasahayam which did not signify any recognized saint, but simply the Tamil translation (help from God) of the biblical name "Lazar". Though such practice was not being kindly looked upon by Rome in the heat of the then raging controversy over the "Malabar Rites", the Jesuits in South India, following the footsteps of the great Robert de Nobili ventured into a praxis of inculturation, of which the name Devasahayam could be said to be one of the early fruits! In the same way, for example, 'Peter' was translated into 'Rayappan' (which means 'person of the rock') 'John' into Arulappan' (which means 'person of grace') and 'Paul' into 'Chinnappan' (which means 'small person'). A total change in Devasahayam 19. He was delighted to be a Christian. What took place at baptism was not a mere change of name -from Neelakandan to Devasahayam - but a radical transformation of his person, of his attitudes and dealings with the people among whom he moved. Christians considered the lowest in society 20. There were already a large number of Christians, mostly of the lowest social strata, in the state of Thiruvithancoor. They were not at all a threat to the social order because their Christianity had already been "domesticated" by the prevalent culture of the land and had lost all power for social change. Christians had been castewise divided and, among them, discriminated one against another. 21. While the Christians of Thiruvithancoor, never attempted to appropriate for themselves the counter culture of human equality and individual dignity, as preached and practised by Jesus, the way the new convert Devasahayam lived his Christian life became a real challenge to the authorities. For him all human beings were equal, no one high or low among them. He mixed and mingled freely with everyone, especially the poor and the low in the society. 22. This was an unpardonable sin of Devasahayam in the eyes of his wife, the Brahmins in the royal court and his accusers before the king. In one of the earliest dramas on the Martyr his wife, Bargaviammal, when gently persuaded by her husband to seriously think of becoming a Christian, loudly expresses her shock and sense of utter inability to embrace his religion by challenging her husband : "Who could respect this as a great religion of the world? Is it not the religion of the outcastes and the wicked?"
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