India, Sept. 29 -- Last Tuesday morning, Father Jesu announced something special during mass at Saint Francis Xavier's Church in Chennai. "We have a new patron saint," he said, his voice carrying across the small congregation of shopkeepers, teachers, and daily wage workers. "Pope Leo has declared Saint Devasahayam the patron saint of all lay people in India." An elderly woman in the front row wiped her eyes. She remembered her grandmother's stories about this saint-a man who lived and suffered just like ordinary people do.

Saint Lazarus Devasahayam wasn't born into religious life. In 1712, he was born as Neelakanda Pillai in a village in Tamil Nadu, much like the villages that dot India's landscape today. He grew up to become a trusted ...