Recently Devasahayam Pillai was in news. Who is he?

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Devasahayam Pillai, who embraced Christianity in the 18th century, became the first Indian layman to be declared a saint by Pope Francis during an impressive canonisation ceremony at the Vatican. Devasahayam was born on April 23, 1712 as Neelakanta Pillai into a Hindu Nair family, at Nattalam in Kanyakumari district, which was part of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom. He took the name “Lazarus”, or “Devasahayam” in Malayalam, which translates to “God is my help”. He received the crown of martyrdom when he was shot on January 14, 1752.