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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."
37 stories in the library.
In a Tablet to the Bahá’ís of Canada, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá recalls how He was warned not to go to Montreal, and how, trusting in God, He went and found every door open and the hearts receptive.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá loved laughter. Once He laughed so heartily that His turban became disarranged; He told Juliet Thompson and May Maxwell that they rested Him, and He could not tell one joke for laughing.
Sutherland Maxwell, not yet a Bahá’í, planned to lodge ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a Montreal hotel. The day before He arrived, he bought new furniture for the largest bedroom, and he met the Master at the train and begged Him to stay in his home.
On the first Western pilgrimage, a young American said she was now an orphan because her parents did not believe. Munírih Khánum embraced her and brought her to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who told her that the ties of the spirit are all.
May Bolles, one of the first Western pilgrims, recalls her journey from Marseilles by way of Port Said to Haifa and the morning she first met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
In 'Akká 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked May Maxwell whether she would like a child, and she answered that she chose whatever God chose. In 1910 her daughter Mary was born, and the Master urged her to raise the child as a real Bahá'í.
In Paris in 1901, Thomas Breakwell heard a voice in the wind say “Christ has come again!” He learned of Bahá'u'lláh from May Bolles, visited 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, and gave the rest of his short life to service.
Julia Grundy visits the Riḍván garden near 'Akká with the daughters of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and kneels at Bahá'u'lláh's chair. Its old gardener, Abu'l-Qásim, told May Maxwell what Bahá'u'lláh said of the garden and of the locusts.
While Juliet Thompson painted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s portrait in America, He told May Maxwell she had a kind heart, Lua Getsinger a tender heart and Juliet an emotional one, and said that united they would make a great heart.
On her pilgrimage May Bolles heard ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tell how Bahá’u’lláh stayed three days with a poor hermit in his cave and shared his dry meat, dark bread and spring water as though it were a banquet.
On her 1898–99 pilgrimage May Bolles found joy in the Master’s presence, then spoke unkindly of a fellow believer. His gentle, compassionate gaze at supper moved her to tears, and His smile restored her.
In Montreal, when a Protestant asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá a question about St. Paul, the Master answered with thunderous emphasis, "Peter, not Paul!" and would speak only of Peter.
On pilgrimage to 'Akká, 'Abdu'l-Bahá noticed that Robert Turner, Phoebe Hearst's butler, was absent, asked for him, and rose to greet him with words of love. Shoghi Effendi later praised the tenacity of his faith.
A Paris lawyer who heard of the Faith in 1901 became the first French Bahá'í. He left the law to study Persian and Arabic, translated the Writings into French, travelled widely for the Faith and served 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris.
In the summer of 1901 a young Englishman met May Bolles in Paris and within three days accepted the Bahá'í Faith. On pilgrimage to 'Akká he told 'Abdu'l-Bahá that the mill he worked for relied on child labour, and resigned at the Master's word.
In December 1898 the first of fifteen Western pilgrims, travelling in three parties arranged by Phoebe Hearst, reached 'Akká and met 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Shoghi Effendi saw in their visit the opening of a new epoch for the Faith in the West.
Returning to Paris from her 1898–99 pilgrimage to 'Akká, May Bolles established, at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's instruction, the first Bahá'í centre on the European continent, where Thomas Breakwell, Hippolyte Dreyfus and Laura Barney came to the Faith.
Robert Turner, Phoebe Hearst's butler, went with her party on the first Western pilgrimage to 'Akká. When he was missing from a gathering, 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked for him, rose to greet him and had him sit with the other pilgrims.
While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was staying at the Maxwell home in Montreal in 1912, little Mary Maxwell slipped into His room as He rested, pushed up His eyelids, and He took her in His arms.
When May Maxwell fell ill on pilgrimage, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá cancelled the pilgrims’ meeting on Mount Carmel, saying none of them could be happy unless all the beloved were happy.
Kept in Paris at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's wish, May Maxwell met Thomas Breakwell and gave him the Message. On the evening of the day he wrote his supplication to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a cablegram arrived for her: ‘You may leave Paris.’
Speaking at the Maxwell home in Montreal on September 2, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá compared human nature left untrained to land overgrown with thorns, and the Prophets of God to Gardeners who turn the wild field into an orchard.
O thou ignited candle! Thy letter was received.
Before travelling to the West of America, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wished first to visit Montreal, where May Maxwell, founder of the first Bahá’í community in France, had established the first permanent Bahá’í community in Canada.
In a letter printed in March 1912, May Maxwell described Montreal's preparation for 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit: talks heard by socialists and labour groups, and a friendly article in the leading Canadian newspaper.
Reserved by nature, Sutherland Maxwell first planned to lodge ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a Montreal hotel, but the day before He came bought new furniture for Him and begged Him at the station to stay in their home.
The morning after He arrived in Montréal, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited a sickly girl across the street from the Maxwells and told her parents she must be let out into the sunlight; she soon recovered completely.
On pilgrimage in ‘Akká, May Bolles (Maxwell) spoke against a fellow-believer. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá knew of it at once; at supper His gaze of compassion moved her to tears, and then He smiled and called her name.
Mary Maxwell of Montreal married Shoghi Effendi on 25 March 1937 in a simple, private wedding; as Rúḥíyyih Khánum she later served as a Hand of the Cause and travelled to 185 countries and territories.
The Montreal architect William Sutherland Maxwell, husband of May Maxwell, spent his last years serving Shoghi Effendi in Haifa and designed the superstructure of the Shrine of the Báb.
On her first pilgrimage in 1923, the twelve-year-old Mary Maxwell stood guard at the door of her sleeping mother, May Maxwell, only to learn that the visitor she had challenged was Shoghi Effendi.
Mary Maxwell, who grew up in Montreal, married Shoghi Effendi in Haifa in 1937 with no celebration and no elaborate ceremony. Known afterwards as Rúḥíyyih Khánum, she served the Faith for the rest of her life.
In 1937 Mary Maxwell of Montreal married Shoghi Effendi in Haifa. Almost no one knew beforehand, and there was no celebration, no wedding dress and no reception.
May Maxwell died only weeks after arriving in South America as a pioneer. The Guardian wrote that she laid down her life in a spirit that merited the crown of martyrdom.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum recalls how her mother, May Maxwell, was broken by grief after the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and how a pilgrimage to Haifa in 1923 to meet Shoghi Effendi restored her.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum recalls her marriage to Shoghi Effendi on 25 March 1937: a visit to the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, a simple ceremony in the room of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and no celebration at all.
When cables brought news of May Maxwell's death in Argentina, Shoghi Effendi broke it to her daughter, Rúḥíyyih Khánum, with great tenderness, and comforted her until she was laughing through her tears.