Lua Getsinger's Petition to the Sháh
Bahá'í Chronicles editors, Bahá'í Chronicles · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Paris (today: Paris, France)
How this story reached us
- 1.Biographical facts from Bahá'í Chronicles (Louise Lua Aurora Getsinger) and God Passes By. The 1902 petition to the Sháh is recounted by her biographers, Velda Piff Metelmann (Lua Getsinger: Herald of the Covenant, George Ronald, 1997) and Selena Crosson (doctoral dissertation on her life), as summarized on Bahaipedia; it is not in the Bahá'í Chronicles entry.
A retelling. Lua Getsinger's life is drawn from Bahá'í Chronicles and Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By; the account of her 1902 petition to the Sháh follows her biographers, Velda Piff Metelmann (Lua Getsinger: Herald of the Covenant, 1997) and Selena Crosson.
Lua Getsinger was born Louise Aurora Moore on 1 November 1871 in Hume, New York. While at school in Chicago she attended a class on the Bahá'í Faith, and there she met Edward Getsinger, whom she later married. The two were in the party of pilgrims arranged by Phoebe Hearst, and on 10 December 1898 they reached 'Akká, the first North American Bahá'ís to visit 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He allowed them to stay five months to learn Persian and deepen their knowledge of the Faith. Bahá'í Chronicles records that He said to her:
Lua in Persian means 'Flag', and you must be my flag and wave it in the East and in the West!
In 1902 Muẓaffari'd-Dín Sháh of Persia visited Paris. The Bahá'ís of his country were being persecuted, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá was still confined to 'Akká. According to her biographers, 'Abdu'l-Bahá judged the time and the person right, and Lua went to Paris, with Mariam Haney, to present a petition to the Sháh. It asked that the Bahá'ís be granted an audience with him, that he protect the Bahá'ís of Persia, and that he ask the Sultan of Turkey to allow 'Abdu'l-Bahá freedom to travel.
At first Lua was granted a meeting only with the Grand Vizier. She pressed the matter, and in the end she met the Sháh himself and handed him the petition. He agreed to intercede on behalf of the Bahá'ís, but said he could not obtain the freedom of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Lua spent the rest of her life teaching the Faith, in America, in Europe, in India and in Egypt. 'Abdu'l-Bahá named her the Herald of the Covenant. She died of heart failure in Cairo on 2 May 1916. In God Passes By Shoghi Effendi names her, "reposing forever in the capital of Egypt," among the believers who by their services and sacrifice conferred "a lustre upon the American Bahá'í community."
This is a retelling. For her life, see Bahá'í Chronicles and Velda Piff Metelmann's Lua Getsinger: Herald of the Covenant.
Cite this story
editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/louise-lua-aurora-getsinger/
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