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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
22 stories in the library.
Before leaving for Minneapolis, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked Corinne True to speak about the Faith in public; when she protested that she had no training, He told her to turn her heart wholly toward Him.
At the dedication of the Temple site in Wilmette on 1 May 1912, the golden trowel could not break the ground, so ‘Abdu’l-Bahá swung an axe. Women and people of many races then dug, and He declared the Temple already built.
When Corinne True tearfully told ‘Abdu’l-Bahá of the sad things she had had to bear, His answer brought peace to her heart, and she later became a great support for anyone who had lost a loved one.
Unable to give money for the Temple, the Chicago seamstress Nettie Tobin hauled a discarded building stone to the Temple site in 1908; on May 1, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá used it when He dedicated the ground.
Corinne True's son Davis was critically ill when 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited him in Chicago on 30 April. Davis died while the Master kept Corinne busy; yet she was at the Temple site the next day, and the Master later prayed at the cemetery.
While 'Abdu'l-Bahá was again confined to 'Akká, Corinne True brought Him a petition signed by over a thousand American believers asking to build a House of Worship. He held it high with joy and told her to make a beginning.
On pilgrimage, Corinne True met the martyr's widow who served tea to the Master's family each morning, and marvelled at His household of over forty people of many races and nations, where no word of dispute was heard.
A cleaning woman, ashamed of her rough, work-worn hands, meant only to touch 'Abdu'l-Bahá's robe and slip away. He took her hand, raised her up, looked at it with deep love, and said one word: “Sacrifice!”
Corinne True's daughter Arna feared she had tuberculosis and felt she could not marry Leo Perron. 'Abdu'l-Bahá took her thermometer, broke it in two, and told her she would be well and could marry. She soon recovered.
When some of His Persian companions remarked that there was better tea than the one Corinne True served in Chicago, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá drank it and said it was very good because it had been prepared with love.
Speaking in Chicago in November 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told the believers how the Bahá'ís of Yazd, though strong enough to resist, met their executioners without raising a hand, some even offering them sweets.
In 1907 Corinne True watched from her window as the Master gave money and words of kindness to two or three hundred of the poor of ‘Akká, as He did every Friday morning.
After His Friday-morning gifts to the poor of ‘Akká in 1907, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told Corinne True that some of them were His enemies, yet He was kind to them, and explained how scarce work was in the city.
As financial secretary of Bahai Temple Unity, Corinne True of Chicago gathered gifts from across America and the East for the House of Worship at Wilmette. She lived to see it dedicated in 1953 and was known as the Mother of the Temple.
In March 1909 thirty-nine delegates from thirty-six cities met in Chicago and formed Bahá'í Temple Unity, the national body that would hold the land and raise the funds for the first House of Worship in the West.
The day after her son Davis died, Corinne True came to the dedication of the Temple site in Wilmette, where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá singled her out for a short drive and then broke ground for the House of Worship.
In Chicago in April 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to the Bahá’í Temple Unity Convention on the purpose of houses of worship, and Corinne True realized the Temple was meant to unite all humankind.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stayed at Mrs True's home in Chicago in September 1912, visitors filled its rooms, hallways and stairs; when He grew tired, He would take a walk outside and then return.
When Thornton Chase, a member of Chicago's all-male House of Spirituality, asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá about the Temple, He told the three visiting men to consult Corinne True, to whom He had given complete instructions.
On pilgrimage in 1907 Corinne True brought ‘Abdu’l-Bahá a petition from Chicago to build a House of Worship. He described the Temple’s design, warned her she would suffer, and asked her to work for it.
In the Chicago area, 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited the grave of Davis True at Oak Woods Cemetery with Corinne True and others, reciting the Prayer for the Dead and praying for all who were buried there.