1752

Martyrdom of St Devasahayam Pillai

After three years of cruel suffering, paraded on a buffalo, scourged and chained for months to a tree in the wilderness, Devasahayam was shot on 14 January 1752 at the Travancore lines by the Aralvaimozhi gap, dying with the names of Jesus and Mary on his lips. The old accounts do not name the hill; Kattadimalai is the name it carries from the national shrine that stands there now. Of the relics kept at Vadakkankulam, the Jesuit historian Auguste Jean wrote in 1894 that the church held a part of his garment and the chains with which he was bound; the diocese records that the head-cloth he wore is kept here too. His wife, baptised Gnanapoo Theresa, lies buried in the parish cemetery.