The just words, the words always to remember, were cabled by
Shoghi Effendi: "'Abdu'l-Baha's beloved handmaid, distinguished disciple
May Maxwell (is) gathered (into the) glory (of the) Abha Kingdom. Her earthly
life, so rich, eventful, incomparably blessed, (is) worthily ended. To sacred
tie her signal services had forged, (the) priceless honor (of a) martyr's death
(is) now added. (A) double crown deservedly won. (The) Seven-Year Plan, particularly
(the) South American campaign, derive fresh impetus (from the) example (of) her
glorious sacrifice. Southern outpost (of) Faith greatly enriched through
association (with) her historic resting-place destined remain (a) poignant
reminder (of the) resistless march (of the) triumphant army (of) Baha'u'llah.
Advise believers (of) both Americas (to) hold befitting memorial gathering."
–Shoghi Effendi (Cablegram, March 3, 1940; ‘Messages to
America’)
…Shoghi Effendi once said to her [May Maxwell), one night
when he came to dinner in the Western Pilgrim House after our union, that had I
[Ruhiyyih Khanum] not been May Maxwell's daughter he would not have married me.
This does not mean it was the only reason, but it was evidently a very powerful
one, for in the cable he sent on 3 March 1940 officially announcing her death,
which had taken place two days before, he said "To sacred tie her signal
services had forged priceless honour martyr's death now added. Double crown
deservedly won." These words clearly indicate her relationship to his
marriage. In a Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to one of her spiritual children He had written
"her company uplifts and develops the soul". Until I came under the
direct influence of the Guardian, through being privileged to be with him for
over twenty years, I can truly say that my character, my faith in Bahá'u'lláh
and whatever small services I had so far been able to render Him, were entirely
due to her influence. From these facts it will be seen that when I arrived with
my mother, on my third pilgrimage to Haifa, in January 1937, the status of my
father inside the Faith can best be described as being "Mrs. Maxwell's
husband".
- Amatu’l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum, (‘The
Priceless Pearl’)
She was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on January 14, 1870,
the daughter of John B. Bolles and Mary Martin Bolles, in descent American
through many generations. Her early years were spent in the Englewood home of
her maternal grandfather, a man distinguished in New York's banking world. She
had one brother, Randolph, whom she loved deeply and whose attraction to the Baha'i
Faith, as evidenced in the last year before his death in 1939 (by his
translation into English of the French footnotes of Nabil), gave her supreme
content.
Even as a girl her priceless qualities adorned her - a capacity for affectionate and enduring ties; an eagerness for truth which led her down many paths, laying the basis for an all-encompassing sympathy; and an independent, original nature, alive to the "susceptibilities of the Kingdom." After fourteen years she accepted no formal schooling: "I felt very distinctly there was another way of acquiring knowledge."
Paris was early a pivot in her life's destiny, its French
"a lyric, plastic tongue" in which she often thought and felt. Two
visits as a child, including a period in a Convent school, were followed by a
residence of some eleven years, undertaken for Randolph's architectural studies
at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. It was 1898 of this sojourn that became forever memorable.
The first foreshadowing reached her when, at eleven years of
age, she experienced in her sleep a sunlight so brilliant that for one day her
eyes were blinded. Again she dreamed that angels carried her through space.
Seeing light, she found it was the earth, and the earth was marked with seals,
and one word was on the earth. Of this she could read only the B and the H, but
she knew then that these letters would transform her life. The Master Himself
came to her in vision, a majestic figure in Eastern garb, beckoning her from
across the Mediterranean with characteristic gesture. She thought He was Jesus
but two years later when Lua heard, "This is 'Abdu'l-Baha," she said.
Despite the beauty and comfort of her surroundings, and the
warmth of her relation with mother and brother - "these three were one
heart, one soul, with a multitude of friends because of it" [1 ] -- the
Paris years were not altogether easy ones. Ill health then as always tested
her, to which her husband has borne sufficient witness: "May had courage
and her sublime faith inspired her to carry on, very frequently under a
handicap of health that would have daunted others." This weakness chained
her to her bed for two years before Lua's coming, and if later she recalled
those months as preparation, the Master's words to her make clear the reason:
"... The heart is made ready by all experience for the seed of life....
Now your troubles are ended and you must wipe away your tears.... "
On its face, it was not unusual that Mrs. Phoebe Hearst,
close family friend, should in November, 1898, bring her party of American
tourists to her apartment on the Quai d'Orsay, then occupied by Mrs. Bolles,
her son and daughter, and Mrs. Hearst's two nieces whom she chaperoned. The
party was going up the Nile; its startling mission went undisclosed. Only May
sensed in Lua Getsinger a hidden fire, sought it out, believed, and through her
passionate desire won the invitation of Mrs. Hearst to join this pilgrimage.
They were the first Americans to go. Because of
'Abdu'l-Baha's imprisonment they traveled to Haifa in small groups, of which
one included May Bolles, Mrs. Thornburgh, Anne Apperson, Miss Pearson, and
Robert Turner. She reached her Lord on February 17, 1899; her own words record
that imperishable story. [2]
"Of that first meeting I can remember neither joy nor pain
nor anything that I can name. I had been carried suddenly to too great a
height; my soul had come in contact with the Divine Spirit; and this force so
pure, so holy, so mighty had overwhelmed me .... And when He arose and suddenly
left us we came back with a start to life: but never again, oh! never again,
thank God, to the same life on this earth!
When He had finished speaking we were led gently away... and
for a moment it seemed that we were dying... until, as we drove away...
suddenly His spirit came to us, a great strength and tranquillity filled our
souls.... We had left our Beloved in His glorious prison that we might go forth
and serve Him; that we might spread His Cause and deliver His Truth to the
world; and already His words were fulfilled -- 'The time has come when we must
part, but the separation is only of our bodies; in spirit we are united
forever.'"
How truthful her record! How immeasurable the alteration of
her life! None knew this better than 'Abdu'l-Baha for, as He adjured her
mother, "she was in a certain condition and now she is in another. Yea,
she has been human, but now she is divine; earthly, but now heavenly; mundane,
but belonging now to the Kingdom of God!" 'Ali-Kuli Khan has recalled that
when, visiting 'Akka in 1900, he was told of the American pilgrims, "the
highest praise given by the Master... always centered upon May Bolles."
Certain it is that "her inertness (was) replaced by
activity, ... her muteness by wonderful speech, ..." and that upon
returning to Paris she began quietly with friends to convey her overwhelming
experience. Her fellow-believers had by now gone on to America, leaving her
alone. "I say alone!" Mason Remey has exclaimed. "May Bolles stood
alone as a Baha'i, one frail woman in that vast metropolis, the heart of Continental
culture.... Her task was to establish there a Divine Cause!"
Merely to register the names of those who, from 1899 to
1902, were drawn by her "personal fascination... so fragile, so
luminous... and the most delicate, perfect beauty, flower-like and
star-like;" [3] and who, through this spell, attained to its origin in her
rapturous love for 'Abdu'l-Baha -- is to compel astonishment. The first to
believe was Edith MacKaye, and by the New Year of 1900, Charles Mason Remey and
Herbert Hopper were next to follow. Then came Marie Squires (Hopper), Helen
Ellis Cole, Laura Barney, Mme. Jackson, Agnes Alexander, Thomas Breakwell,
Edith Sanderson, and Hippolyte Dreyfus, the first French Baha'i. Emogene Hoagg
and Mrs. Conner had come to Paris in 1900 from America, Sigurd Russell at
fifteen returned from 'Akka a believer, and in 1901, the group was further
reinforced by Juliet Thompson, Lillian James, and "the frequent passing through
Paris of pilgrims from America going to the Master... and then again returning
from the Holy Land." These are but a few, for "in 1901 and 1902 the
Paris group of Baha'is numbered between twenty-five and thirty people with May
Bolles as spiritual guide and teacher." [4]
Nor let us forget that this superlative achievement was won
without literature, almost without knowledge. Only a few prayers and the Hidden
Words, and the heart's attachment to the Supreme Beloved, nourished and
protected her teaching. What a bounty, then, to receive in 1901 the extended visit
of Mirza 'Abu'l-Fadl, sent by the Master to strengthen His Western children.
For perhaps a month he taught them almost daily, through the translations of
Anton Haddad and 'Ali-Kuli Khan. Of those memorable hours Agnes Alexander has
written: "An atmosphere of pure light pervaded the Paris meetings, so much
so that one was transported, as it were, from the world of man to that of
God;" to which Juliet Thompson's testimony is added: "That Paris
group was so deeply united in love and faith; May, Lua, Laura and Khan, these
four especially so inspired, so carried away, so intoxicated with love for the
beloved Master; our great teacher, Mirza 'Abu'l-Fadl, so heavenly wise - that
those days were the days of miracle, of all but incredible confirmations."
We can but imagine the special joy which Lua's frequent presence
must have brought, for May's devotion to her "precious mother" was
constant to the last. Hers was the uncommon gift of discernment, beneath every veil of flesh,
of the soul's hidden virtue, and her words written upon the news of Lua's death
in 1916 bear eloquent witness to this power: "Great and wonderful were her
qualities - in her own person she bore the sins and weaknesses of us all, and
redeeming herself she redeemed us. She broke the path through the untrod
forest; she cast her soul and body into the stream and perished making the
bridge by which we cross... The passion of Divine love that consumed her heart
shall light the hearts of mankind forever and forever."
Perhaps the most wondrous event of this fecund time was the
confirmation of that brightest of spirits, Thomas Breakwell. Asked by
'Abdu'l-Baha to remain in Paris in the summer of 1901, despite her family's
displeasure May obeyed; only thus could she respond when a friend brought to
her door "this youth of medium height, slender, erect and graceful, with
intense eyes and an indescribable charm." Although on their first meeting
she did not mention her Faith, he returned the next day in great agitation,
having experienced a vision of Christ's presence on this earth. "He was
like a blazing light. Such was his capacity that he received the Message in all
its fullness and all its strength and beauty within three days, and on the third
day he wrote his supplication to 'Abdu'l-Baha, which in its force and simplicity
I have never seen equalled: 'My Lord, I believe; forgive me. Thy servant,
Thomas Breakwell.' That evening I went to the rue du Bac to get my mail... and
there lay a little blue cablegram from 'Abdu'lBaha. With what wonder and awe I
read His words. 'You may leave Paris at any time!’” [5]
Yet even as we are touched by this account and by the
remembrance of one whom the Master could so address: "O my beloved, O
Breakwell! Thou hast become a star in the most exalted horizon; ..." must
we not also perceive the responsiveness of that instrument through whom He
obtained His will!
She was obedient not only in matters affecting her Faith.
Her whole being, every attachment and every goal, she placed with tender
confidence at His disposal. "I have not two lives but one," she wrote
in 1934, "the inner life of the Cause to which every outer thing and
circumstance must adjust itself." So with her marriage, she delayed and
consummated it at His desire.
William Sutherland Maxwell, Scotch Canadian of an old and
established family of Montreal, and young student of architecture in the Ecole
des Beaux Arts, met May Bolles through her brother, not long after his arrival
in October, 1899. He was not a Baha'i; indeed he attended no meetings until
1902. After seventeen months he returned to Montreal to enter his profession,
engaged to be married, but waiting upon the news of her readiness. This came at
last; they were wed in London on May 8, 1902. And his patience, he himself has
said, had an enduring recompense.
O Paris, crossroads of the world, when has your history
unfolded such mysterious tales! What mighty power caused this "spot,...
heedless of the praise of God," to grow a fertile garden! See once the
seeds of spring rooted in gifted hearts; see then these hearts, bearing sweet
fruits, dispersed to fecundate for never-ending harvests the countless nations.
And were they not the choicest spirits, flung by our generous Lord across His
darkened planet, so to bestow upon all unregenerate, unlovely things the
fragrance of attraction?
O Paris, after forty years we do affirm the Master's prayer
went not unanswered! "Fill their breasts with the boundless joy that blows
as a breeze from Thy Kingdom of Abha, that they may be the miracles of Thine
Appearance from the Highest Horizon."
She was then thirty-two years old when, her fame hastening
before, she returned to America. How can we at this distance penetrate the
dislocation of her ways, uprooted from dearest companions, from the Paris she
adored, to come a bride to a far and alien land? "Thou wert as pure
gold," the Master wrote her, "and didst enter the fire of test...
Gird up thy loins, fortify thy back, arise, and with the strength of thy heart promote
the Word of God... in that remote region."
Yet she was ever a rootless creature, and for her neither
time nor space nor the plans of men held real authority - a tendency much
strengthened by 'Abdu'l-Baha's instruction. "Time is a gross
deception," she said, "the measuring rod of our present
captivity...." And again, "The mortal cage is nothing; the soul's
motion in relation to the Beloved is the unfolding of all the meaning of
life." Often in 1902 she reminded herself of that French heroine who,
finding how unsubstantial was existence, had all her handkerchiefs embroidered,
"A quoi bon!" And Louise Bosch has vividly remembered: "As often
as I looked upon her, and contemplated her attitude to life and her disposition
of it, I would distinctly feel that she was only visiting here ...."
"Ephemeral" - this was her own term, but without
struggle and without reproach. She knew well that "the soul only grows and
expands in an atmosphere of joy," and while this world seemed a fleeting
shadow, yet it was irradiated with the splendor of her true, her heavenly home.
This unquenchable joy she carried to Montreal and planted as
well in her earthly home. Though she departed a hundred times (her letters are
dated from Edgartown, Rye, Boston, New York, Arverne), her heart turned always
back with yearning renewed in poignant memories. And with what wealth the years
endowed these two! Montreal, mother-city of Canada; the Maxwell home, center
"not only of the Baha'i friends . . . but of all the pilgrims who
travelled that way during all . . . their blessed lives together!" [6]
Louise Bosch, 'Ali-Kuli Khan and Mme. Khan, Lua Getsinger, Agnes Alexander, Zia
Bagdadi and Zeenat Khanum (sent by 'Abdu'l-Baha for their marriage in April,
1914), Mason Remey and George La timer, William H. Randall, Elizabeth
Greenleaf, Jinab-i-Fadl, Mother Beecher, Keith Ransom-Kehler, Ruhi Effendi,
Martha Root, Emogene Hoagg, Mabel Ives -- illustrious names in our Faith, all
these and a host more were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell. Small wonder then
that even from Bahji she should write: "I still long for you all who so
live in my heart and eagerly look forward to the hour when I shall meet you
again, when we shall be together in a meeting of pure love and unity in the
room where our beloved Lord sat with us, where His blessed name has been
mentioned, and His wonderful words have been read for so many years."
One thing is clear, that wherever she travelled, the spirit
of 'Abdu'l-Baha went there too. So potent was the force of His attraction on
her heart that she in turn became "a magnet of love drawing everyone to
God." This alone was her method of teaching, the hidden source of an
inimitable effect. The following passage comes from a letter of 1915:
"We must first touch the heart to awaken it; if it
opens and responds we must sow the priceless seed .... Prepare the soil with
the warmth of your love just as the sun prepares the soil in the spring or the
seed would not grow. Remove the stones and weeds ... that is to say, in a kind
way try to remove prejudices.... Uproot narrow superstitions by suggesting
broader, deeper ideas. Never oppose people's ideas and statements, but give
them a little nobler way of seeing life. Such words and thoughts will take
effect because they come from a Baha'i whose life flows from the Source of all
life on earth today. . . . My great and wise teacher, Mirza 'Abu'l-Fadl, laid
down these divine principles of teaching in my soul... and they have changed
all my attitude. He showed me that it is the Spirit of God that is doing the
work; we must wait upon the Spirit and do Its bidding only."
So in this way the Faith was sown in Montreal. By 1903
Sutherland Maxwell had become the first Canadian Baha'i, and shortly after, his
cousin Martha MacBean followed him. Group meetings were then started and later
regularly established. Soon Mary Corristine, Rose Henderson, and others
unrecorded had been won.
At the same time, through wide and active civic interests,
the name of Mrs. Maxwell came to be distinguished among her fellow citizens.
Prior to 1912 she supported a Children's Court for Montreal, and her efforts were
chief in maintaining the Colborne Street Milk Station. Later about 1914 she
brought from New York a Montessori teacher, starting "the first school of
this type in Canada in our own home .... It was through all this that I became
interested in the movement for Progressive Education, of which I was
practically a charter member... "Such sympathies were a solid basis for the
Master's triumphant welcome in 1912, for He found "no antagonist and no
adversary."
But before this consummation there came a bounty which must
always be associated with the pilgrimage of February, 1909. Not for ten years
had she visited 'Abdu'l-Baha, and though her name was often on His tongue - at this time, Mirza Moneer affirmed,
she was renowned in the East through His frequent mentions in Tablets -- great
was the pleasure in 'Akka on her return.
That meeting with the Master and the ladies of His house Louise Bosch has
described, and from her, too, the tender greeting of the Holy Mother:
"First as a young girl, now with your husband; on your next visit, you
will come with your child!"
Blessed indeed were those six days. To them 'Abdu'l-Baha referred
in 1911 and 1913: "Thy utmost desire was to have a child for whom thou
hast prayed and supplicated while in 'Akka. Praise be to God that the prayer is
answered and thy desire realized. In the garden of existence a rose has
blossomed with the utmost freshness, fragrance, and beauty... I beg of God that
this little child may become great and wonderful in the Divine Kingdom."
"Now He is coming and will be here about the middle of
next week, and I hope that nothing in this world will prevent your being here!
The months I spent near 'Abdu'l-Baha in New York have done more for the
education and enlightenment of my heart and conscience than all my life's
experience..."
After five months in the United States the Master was coming
to Montreal! He had accepted their invitation, despite His friends' forebodings,
and late on the night of August 30, 1912, the Maxwells and Louise Bosch met His
train from Boston. He went directly to her home, for four days lavishing His presence
before moving to the Hotel Windsor. The columns of the Montreal Daily Star had
for a week been heralding this great event, and during those memorable days the
best publicity of His American stay, He said, ensured a permanent record of His
words. In hours of grave concern to
Canada, of threatening conflict and burdensome armaments, the predictions of
this "Apostle of Peace... (of) An Appalling War" were headlined to
the city.
Besides daily interviews with groups and individuals,
'Abdu'l-Baha made seven public lectures. His first was for morning service at
the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) on September 1st. On the 3rd He outlined
for five hundred Socialists at Coronation Hall -- vividly, completely - Baha'i
principles for The Economic Happiness of the Human Race. His last address drew
twelve hundred listeners to St. James Methodist Church on September 5th. Four
talks were given in the Maxwell home, and many who there heard Him were
believers, while others became so.
Her share was strenuous in this historic sojourn, for she
made the major part of His arrangements. But He accorded her immortal praise in
the Tablet to Canada. And "the results in the future are
inexhaustible!"
'Abdu'l-Baha touched no other point in Canada; rather He
hoped that His time in Montreal might so stir that city "that the melody
of the Kingdom may travel to all parts of the world." "Do ye not look
upon the smallness of your numbers," He forbade them. "One pearl is
better than a thousand wildernesses of sand, especially this pearl of great
price, which is endowed with divine blessing." And to May Maxwell He gave
a special charge, sending in her care His two mighty Tablets to this nation.
The first was received in the fall of 1916 and she, together
with the four who stood in like relation to the other regions of America, was
henceforth known to the American Baha'is as a "center" for the spread
of the Divine Plan. How mysterious is the Cause! The secret energies released
by these mother words seem to have enveloped the Eighth Convention (April,
1916). With a sublime intuition, in the very month of the Master's
enunciation-"the banner of oneness must be unfurled in those states"-
she "voiced the oneness of the world of humanity in so wonderful a way
that one might well have thought our beloved 'Abdu'l-Baha was using (her) to
convey a message to the Convention." [7]
It was not the first nor the last time that her searching
spirit, restless and "ablaze with the fire of the love of God,"
resuscitated the delegates in their sessions. She attended a majority of
Conventions, often as Montreal's representative, and although on too many occasions
her health's debility restrained her, she would appear, as Mabel Ives has said,
"at occasional moments on the floor of the Convention ... raising such a lofty call that a new and
high level was set of understanding and devotion..”
Does this amaze us? No, rather we should recall the Master's
characterization! "May Maxwell is really a Baha'i..." "She breathed
no breath and uttered no word save in service to the Cause of God."
"Whosoever meets her feels from her association the susceptibilities of
the Kingdom. Her company uplifts and develops the soul…"
For her gift, her most exceptional gift was teaching. Every
activity emanated from this source and every new heart roused to life owed,
with what inexpressible gratitude, its very being to her touch. It was not
always her role to instruct the inquirer; this she could do with matchless
charm. Rather, for countless Baha'is she unlocked a hidden treasure for which
they long had searched.
"Pray for me, May, "wrote Keith in 1923. "It is my only refuge.... Through this bitter
storm of trial in which every attribute of light is obscure or withdrawn, you
still stand, a dazzling presence on the further shore toward which I struggle,
a gift and evidence lent me by the Master..." And Keith, like others,
acknowledged that such bestowal was spiritual motherhood. [8]
This "priceless and overflowing quality of the
heart," in Rowland Estall's words, was by no means specialized to her
contemporaries. She was captured by "the mystery of the eternal stream of
Life, flowing through the generations." Whether in Montreal, New York,
Green Acre, California, Portland, Vancouver, Stuttgart, Paris, or Lyon, her perception
of "the pure, fragrant, living force of the rising generation under the shadow
of Shoghi Effendi" drew to her many youthful spirits. For she was
irresistible in a way most vividly portrayed by her own daughter:
"Many people inspire more or less love in others, but I
don't think I ever knew anyone who inspired the love Mother did -- so that it
was like an event when one was going to
see her. And this I felt all my life, day in day out, and it never became commonplace!"
The Montreal Youth Group, so justly celebrated since 1927,
profited immeasurably by her support. As Mr. Estall has said, "every one
of the young Baha' is either sought out her company to receive the benefit of
her wise counsel and mature knowledge...
or were befriended by her and experienced the privilege of her loving
friendship and generosity." Nor was this of small import, since she influenced from the inception of that Group
such ones as George Spendlove, Rowland Estall, Emeric and Rosemary Sala, Teddy
Edwards Alizade, Norman McGregor, Judie Russell Blakely, Dorothy and Glen Wade, Edward Dewing, Gerrard Sluter, David
Hofman, Rena Gordon, naming only some -- each to become in turn an instrument of
potent teaching.
Indeed, her sympathies recognized no bounds. "Oh, there
is no separateness -- it is the only sin!" And again, "If we knew the
reality, the mystery of oneness, we should be standing in the full light of God...
and we should all be to each other an inexhaustible source of life, strength,
healing, joy, and blessedness." This theme she did not speak idly; around
it all her actions flowed with a fullness tenderly remembered by friends of every
kind and background. Generous beyond any record, she gave unstintingly "to
the Temple and to the furtherance of teaching work; for charity; for relieving
sorrow and distress." [9] Generous too in courage and beyond assault, how
keenly she championed the neglected cause, or labored to reinforce the
underprivileged race.
Through all the years of an undeviating service to the Faith
on the North American continent, from 1902 until 1940 -- years which only to
some future biographer shall yield the
vast, heroic scope of her efforts [10] -- she bore to her fellow-believers,
whether in local or national community, a unique, a spiritual relationship.
"Mother of the Latin races," she has been titled; no, so much more, mother
of yearning hearts in every spot she ever visited!
And this relation was hers in special measure to Canada. The
Tablets of the Divine Plan released in her an impetus which never faltered. In
1916 she journeyed with Grace Ober to the "far Northeast." She taught
also with Marion Jack and, after 1920, with Elizabeth Greenleaf. St. John's, Brockville,
Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver -- all were cities in which "like unto
a gardener," she brought forth "growth through the outpourings of the
cloud of guidance... heaping up piles of crops and harvests." The
Spiritual Assembly of Vancouver was the direct result of her stay in July,
1926; "it would take an Angel Gabriel to blare forth her work!" [11]
Yet she was never content for a moment. "...The
merciful God alone can estimate our failure," she wrote. But only He could
estimate, as well, the triumph of her dauntless spirit over every handicap. Of
all the tributes, the Master's pierces us with sweetest emphasis: "... Thy
Lord shall strengthen thee in a matter, whereby the Queens of the world will
envy thy happy state, throughout all times and ages. Because, verily, the Love of
God is as a glorious Crown upon thy head, the brilliant jewels of which are
glittering forth unto all horizons. Its brilliancy, transparency and effulgence
shall appear in future centuries when the signs of God will be spread and the
Word of God will encompass the heart of all the people of the earth!"
The current of her existence knew no ebb, but mounted
strongly from the first vital contact with 'Abdu'l-Baha, through all the years
of His world-creating Mission, beneath
the pain and oppression of His passing, into the full tide of the Guardianship. [12] And
for almost two decades she was to serve Shoghi Effendi with that same eager,
steadfast concentration which always singled her out above her generation.
"Nothing is too great to suffer for him, no daily discipline, no effort or
sacrifice, no surrender of all that is upon this earth...."
So in August, 1935, arrested by his appeal to the American
believers to turn toward Europe, and preceded by her daughter and dear
relatives, Ruhanguiz and Jeanne Bolles, she with her husband left America. It
was to be a brief visit. In reality, she did not return for two years; she did
not return until her prayer, uttered in 1934 -- "there has revived in me
life's deepest yearning, to 'tread that Path white with the bones of the slain!'"
-- had found a burning answer.
No faintest suspicion, however, of Ruhiyyih Khanum's
destiny, nor of that "sacred tie" which was to crown her "signal
services," interrupted the vigor with which she pressed her teaching in
Germany, Belgium, and France. [what year?] Already to her eyes the Old World
had become a veritable graveyard. "It is appalling to be among so many dead,
'moving dust,' we see them here. . . . The mental, moral, and spiritual
atmospheric pressure is stifling ... for the dark forces completely envelop the
world, seeking to enter every mind and cloud or crush it... Coming over here
and working in Europe is like being borne along on a stream, almost without volition,
entirely without plan, through the directing hand of the Guardian. . . . How he
is combing the world for his jewels -- before the end!"
Sometimes alone, sometimes with others of her family, she
pursued this goal, seeking to recognize and free, from a besetting lethargy,
those hearts known only to Baha'u'llah. She taught first in certain German
centers, acquiring in Munich and Stuttgart an admiration for this
"profoundly interesting country," and its people which was to be
immensely strengthened when, in August, 1936, she returned for the Esslingen
Summer School and to make, at Shoghi Effendi's request, a "grand
tour" of the German Baha'i communities. Thus she was part of that
thrilling final session at Esslingen: "all international barriers were broken
down and there was a oneness of spirit, a joyous companionship ... which
reached a climax with the reading of the Guardian's cablegram containing his
passionate appeal to America...."
She worked intensively in Brussels, too, from October, 1935,
until in the following April she visited Lyon to assist Mirza Ezzatollah Zabih,
"the Persian Baha'i in whose home our beloved Keith passed from this
world." Characteristically, she had left Brussels for a few days at
Christmas to attend the Sixth Annual Conference of Baha'i Students in Paris,
"because they gave me the opportunity to speak on the activities of the
young American Baha'is...." For France she still retained that heavenly
gift with which the Master had endowed her; as in the immortal early years, again
for several months in 1909, so now during this and later sojourns, "elle
fortifiait les Baha'is en leur croyance et attirait d'autres ames a la Cause
par le dynamisme de sa foi, par la clarte de son esprit." [13]
Yet brilliantly as she shone in every field, all was
eclipsed the spring of 1936, April to June, in the city of Lyon. The outer
facts are recorded with surpassing modesty: Meetings held every Thursday for a
group of ten or fifteen; a special meeting begun for the study of Baha'i
Administration, for which "Lyon was virgin soil;" the first Nineteen-Day
Feast, "perhaps ever held in France;" a study group initiated for
young people; ... "and through the medium of the Law of God for this age,
their understanding and faith grew stronger and deeper..." Thus she wrote
of Lyon…
She prayed for martyrdom in the Holy Shrines, and her Lord
in His mercy gave her two replies, and her feet walked no other path from the
day of her daughter's marriage. Sublime, unguessed event! How far our empty
concepts are surpassed; her sensibilities escape us; the winging gratitude, the
pain, its surcease, the heart's ineffable and boundless joy! Should we say only
this -- her home was Haifa? She never greeted Ruhiyyih Khanum again, from May
of 1937; nor did she again experience, after five months of blessed visit, the
Guardian's immediate, revitalizing force. Yet in a deeper sense she lived
there, hour by hour to her last day.
"There was a time that I agonized with a mother's
weakness and instinctive protection over the terrific deprivation in all her
outer human ways, and the austere discipline of the life of my child. It is she
herself (combined with a ray of common sense of my own), who taught me the
spartan spirit of that Persian mother who threw back the head of her martyred
son to his executioner.... And as I have witnessed, from year to year, the
profound and mystic change in Ruhiyyih Khanum.... I have marvelled at the grace
of God and His delicate and perfect handiwork..."
The depths of consciousness to which her life, "so
rich, eventful, incomparably blessed," had gradually accustomed her, came
to exert upon her American friends, from the first moment of return in
September, 1937, an elusive, all-compelling, wonderful effect. She moved among
us then, a spirit of purest light, a symbol of faithfulness, a fountain of
celestial power. "Her wisdom and devotion were like newly-discovered
springs of sweet water." [14] To be near her was to have one's soul
forever altered.
In December and January, 1940, she travelled and taught with
Mr. Maxwell in New York, Englewood, Washington, and Philadelphia. On New Year's
Eve with Mason Remey, they celebrated together his confirmation in Paris, forty
years before. Her earthly book approached its close; there remained but one
brief, triumphant chapter. South America had grown real to her in 1928 through
Frances Stewart, whom she tenderly regarded as its "soul," and for twelve
years these two nourished a relation which strengthened each in service to this
vast continent. She did not think to go there, however, until the Guardian's
dynamic call had stirred the American community to settle its countries with
pioneers, and attract its nationals at home through brilliant teaching. She was
immediately captivated. "Her constant topic of conversation was the Cause
in South America. Her questions to me were inexhaustible.... Never can I forget
the light that illumined her face as I told her stories of the individual
friends... Her spirit was as that of a 'little child' in her enthusiasm, and
South America gradually grew to be to her a 'field, white with the
harvest.'" [15]... This she mentioned to her daughter. "You can well
imagine my astonishment when a cable instantly came back in which the Guardian
said he 'heartily approved winter visit to Buenos Aires.'"
She lost no time; securing the consent of her husband and
physician, she sailed January 24, 1940, on the S.S. Brazil with her
"precious niece," Jeanne Bolles. The voyage, the climate, the
splendid personal contacts, the new and handsome cities of Rio de Janeiro,
Montevideo, and Buenos Aires -- all these elated her. She was able to teach
"one lovely woman on the boat, the wife of a distinguished army man."
In Rio de Janeiro, with the aid of Leonora Holsapple who had come from Bahia,
she arranged two teas at her hotel, the Gloria, one for nineteen guests, while
a third meeting was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Worley. She spoke also
to the president of the Homeopathic College. Yet despite these two weeks of
exhilarating success, she was eager to reach Buenos Aires; "she seemed to
press forward every minute of the way from Rio.... " [16]
They arrived on February 27th, after one day stops in Santos
and Montevideo. "I am thrilled to be here in Buenos Aires," she
wrote, "a strong, beautiful modern city, and an interesting combination of
North and South America, with an enchanting climate and delightful
people...." "As we drove through the streets, precious Aunt May was
like a girl of sixteen in her joyous enthusiasm. She leaned out of the taxi and
exclaimed words of delight.... " [17]
On the night of February 29th they dined alone in her room
at City Hotel, in thought transported to Haifa through Ruhiyyih Khanum's
poignant account of the burial on Mt. Carmel of the Master's illustrious mother
and brother. And she received by telephone the first Baha'i welcome to Buenos
Aires; her mood was radiant. But the next morning a terrible pain came high in
her breast, and though the doctor reassured them both, by afternoon "the
Will of God took her from our midst..." [17]
It was a long vigil which Jeanne kept, "like an angel
from Heaven," without replies to her cables from Friday to Sunday. But she
was not alone, for the Kevorkians and Arsen Poghaharion, Syrian Baha'is, were
in Buenos Aires, and they were soon joined by Elizabeth Nourse, Wilfrid Barton,
and Simon Rosenzweig from Montevideo. Together on March 3rd they gave her
temporary rest in the English cemetery. "Simon writes that it was an
experience to wrench any heart when all the conditions were considered, and a
great mystery..."
"Priceless honor (of a) martyr's death!" Such was
the Guardian's imperishable tribute, and to Mr. Maxwell he cabled, "Her
tomb designed by yourself, erected by me, (on) spot she fought, fell
gloriously, will become historic centre pioneer Baha'i activity."
"Laden with the fruits garnered through well-nigh half a century
of toilsome service to the Cause she so greatly loved, heedless of the warnings
of age and ill-health, and afire with the longing to worthily demonstrate her
gratitude in her overwhelming awareness of the bounties of her Lord and Master,
she set her face towards the southern outpost of the Faith in the New World,
and laid down her life in such a spirit of consecration and self-sacrifice as
has truly merited the crown of martyrdom.
"Laden with the fruits garnered through well-nigh half a century
of toilsome service to the Cause she so greatly loved, heedless of the warnings
of age and ill-health, and afire with the longing to worthily demonstrate her
gratitude in her overwhelming awareness of the bounties of her Lord and Master,
she set her face towards the southern outpost of the Faith in the New World,
and laid down her life in such a spirit of consecration and self-sacrifice as
has truly merited the crown of martyrdom.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a message dated
April 15, 1940; ‘Messages to America’)
They buried her then at Quilmes, a "befitting spot"
discovered by patient search of Jeanne and Wilfrid Barton. At noon of March 13th,
sped by the prayers of eleven believers of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay,
Colombia, Syria, and the United States; and by the Master's thrilling chant,
recorded so long ago and now first voiced in South America for His own
"beloved handmaid" -- her precious form sought its eternal resting-place.
While in her home in Montreal at the same hour, a memorial was held by
cherished friends.
Yet May Maxwell lives -- adorable, rarest spirit! And her
children around the world have given up their weeping, to follow her in the
"resistless march."
From some rampart of heaven three heroines look down.
Martha, May, and Keith! Their shining traces will cheer us through whatever
trials may come; the promise of their aid stands guard above our destinies.
References
[1] Louise
Bosch
[2] All Early
Pilgrimage (note corrected date), published in 1917.
[3] Juliet
Thompson
[4] Mason Remey
[5] See accounts
in BAHA'I WORLD, Vol. VII., pp. 707-711; and in Star of the West, Vol. V., pp.
297-298.
[6] Elizabeth
Greenleaf
[7] Star of
the West, Vol. VII., p. 54.
[8] Keith
Ransom-Kehler, first American martyr and Hand of the Cause, who died in Isfahan
--met Mrs. Maxwell at the Convention of 1921.
[9] Mariam
Haney.
[10] National
Offices: Member of the Executive Board of Baha'i Temple Unity for three years,
1918-20, and of the National Spiritual Assembly for three years, 1924, 1927,
and 1928, also serving as alternate member in 1925. Chairman, 1927, and
Secretary, 1928 and 1929, of the National Teaching Committee; and officer or
member for Canada of the National and/or Regional Teaching Committees from the
first organization in 1920 through 1930, as well as 1932 and 1937. Member of
Star of the West Foundation, 1919, 1920; contributing editor for Baha'i
Magazine 1932-34. Green Acre Program Committee, 1925, 1932. History of the
Cause in America Committee, 1925, 1933-1935. Member of Unity Band prior to 1910
(to correspond with Persian Baha'is). Donor of Tarbiyat School scholarship for
several years from 1910. Committee for "Compilation on Most Great
Peace," 1918.
Montreal (incomplete): Member of Local Spiritual Assembly
from formation in 1922 to November, 1939. On Teaching and Publicity Committees
for many years. Active supporter of Youth and Racial Amity work. (Honorary
president of Negro Club of Montreal, 1927).
[11] Evelyn Kemp.
[12] See her
poem, Orientation, for a proof of the transition achieved in her seven-months'
pilgrimage of 1923-1924. Star of the West, Vol. XV. p. 101.
[13] Laura
Dreyfus-Barney
[14] Elizabeth
Greenleaf
[15] Frances
Stewart
[16] Jeanne
Bolles
[17] Jeanne
Bolles
