Panama City: Half a century later at an international conference held in connection with the dedication of the first Baha'i House of Worship in Latin America, this same slight and soft-spoken woman - Leonora Stirling Armstrong - was presented to the thousands of believers gathered there. Spontaneously they rose to pay tribute to her achievements. What emotions must have surged within her weakened frame, now bent with long toil, as she surveyed these children of her dream. For here were fervent followers of Baha’u’llah raised up from every country of Latin America, of every color, clime and custom. Here was her vision made real; like Saint Peter she cast the seeds, and now witnessed a heavenly harvest. Heartbreaks and anxiety; aches, pains and fevers - how they all took on divine meaning.
On 23 June 1895, in a pleasant two-story house, high on a rise overlooking the Hudson River and the Catskill range beyond, a first child was born to Samuel Norris Holsapple and his beautiful wife, Grace Stirling. They named her Leonora. The Holsapples were well-known in the then little town of Hudson, New York, where they had settled after their marriage. The gifted Mrs. Holsapple served actively in civic work, and had taught school. The childhood of Leonora was, however, soon overshadowed with tragedy and sadness, for her mother's health steadily declined. Just after her precious daughter's fifth birthday she died.
Mrs. Holsapple's untimely death had a profound effect on Leonora and her younger sister, Alethe. They never again had what could truly be called a home. 'How we could endure', Leonora herself recounts, 'through those years of our childhood and adolescence , such loneliness, such suffering, even cruelty, I do not know ... I can remember how when still a small child, often at night before going to bed, I knelt down at my sister's bedside and in agony of soul, implored God with all the intensity of my being to let us feel His Presence, His nearness, His protection. Little did I then dream in what way, and how specifically, that prayer was later to be answered!" [1]
Despite her suffering Leonora was a gifted student all through her childhood. In her high school graduating class she received the highest honors and was made valedictorian. She was able to enter Cornell University on a scholarship, and was elected Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year.
Though she attended church from an early age, Leonora was somewhat disillusioned by what she experienced there. When she was about thirteen her maternal grandmother, 'Mother Stirling', who had by then after long years of spiritual searching found and embraced the Baha'i Faith, first began to teach her granddaughters the truths of the New Day. The example of Mother Stirling's devotion and many efforts to spread the Baha’i teachings made a lasting impression on Leonora's sensitive nature. She was greatly attracted to the new Revelation and began to memorize passages and prayers from the Writings. Already at that time she made her own efforts to share the Message with her classmates and friends.
After graduation from college she taught Latin in high schools and was active in social work as her mother and grandmother had been before her. During this period she came in close contact with a number of prominent early believers, among them the Obers and, in particular, May Maxwell. “May, more than anyone else, helped me to feel the great love of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, the reality of love, which I had longed to feel, and a deep bond was formed between us, which gave me the greatest joy I had known.” [2] Others, too, such as Roy Wilhelm and the Kinneys, inspired her with their immense devotion to the Faith.
The desire to pioneer first stirred in Leonora's soul when 'Abdu'l-Baha's Tablets of the Divine Plan were unveiled at the Baha'i Convention held in New York in 1919. Spontaneously, and at once, she wrote to the Master, offering herself in service. “Thou hadst”, was His reply, “expressed thy great wish to be of service to the Divine Threshold and to heal the infirm with the Divine Panacea - the infirm who is afflicted with passion and self. Spiritual malady is more severe than physical illness for it may be that the latter may be converted by the least remedy into health and vigor, while the former will not be cured by a thousand well-known remedies ... My hope is that thou mayest become a spiritual physician.” [3]
As Leonora recounts it: 'This hope of the Master's became my highest aspiration and when, early in 1920, I read His Tablet to Martha Root , commending her teaching work in South America and stressing the importance of its being followed up by others, it at once seemed to me that here there might be a definite task for me. A letter to Martha brought an immediate reply, with all encouragement.” [4] Martha Root had opened South America with her historic visit there in 1919. Her response to Leonora was whole-hearted. She shared thrilling accounts of her experiences and gave her young recruit a copy of her own diary notes from that period. Brazil was finally decided on as the best place to go first.
The grave concerns of relatives and friends alike now assailed her: to expose herself to the dangers and rigors of such a far-off country, much of it a jungle, alone, friendless, and without knowledge of the language - why it was nothing less than foolhardy! “I felt my resolution weakening, when some social work in the northern part of New York State gave me the sudden idea to slip up to Montreal to consult May Maxwell. Although ill, May, on hearing the situation, sat upright in bed and in ringing tones which still vibrate in my memory, said, "Leonora, what are you waiting for? Go!" "I will take the next boat," I replied.[5]
And so it was that on 15 January 1921 she set sail from New York on a divine adventure destined to span no less than sixty years. In doing so, she became one of a handful of valiant souls who arose in response to 'Abdu'l-Baha's call during His Own lifetime, and the first Baha'i pioneer to settle permanently in Latin America.
Had not the Master promised confirmation to those souls who, like unto Peter and Paul, would journey to South America with the requisite qualities of “perfect severance, devotion, firmness and steadfastness in the Covenant”? [6] Leonora knew this meant severance
“from dearest friends , comforts, profession, from everything .. ." [7] Martha Root had herself impressed this upon her. And now she was to be surrounded and sustained by such divine confirmations.
Leonora's original intention had been to proceed from Rio to Bahia, the northeastern city mentioned by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the Tablets of the Divine Plan - the only city so blessed in the southern hemisphere. But the way opened shortly after her arrival in Rio to teach the Faith in Santos to the south. There she stayed with a family who, in a letter to Martha Root, had expressed interest in knowing more about the Faith. Her quarters were very humble but it was a start.
Life in her land of spiritual adoption was never easy. She often suffered from loneliness, meagre means, malnutrition and illness. Gradually as she became proficient in the Portuguese language, she was better able to support herself. Still, it required long working hours, sometimes at several jobs just to keep body and soul together. She found teaching English, which was the main avenue open to her, to be a valuable way of meeting people and interesting them in the Faith.
Just three months after settling in Santos, Leonora learned of the loss of her beloved grandmother, the spiritual mother of her heart. Later that same year a profounder grief overtook her when news came of the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha. She had so intensely longed to meet Him in this life. Providentially, from Bahji in June 1921, 'Abdu'l-Baha had revealed a second Tablet for her. This Tablet became a source of great comfort to her not only in that time of tragedy but throughout the long years ahead. The Master had addressed the envelope simply: “Brazil. To the Maidservant of God, Leonora Stirling Holsapple.” Amazingly it reached her, as the Master no doubt knew it would. In the text He refers to Leonora as a “Herald of the Kingdom”, calls upon her to “thank God that thou hast enlightened thy sight, and art giving light to the sight of others, too”, refers by name to a number of seekers, and promises that “the intoxicated friends will grow in rapture and ecstasy, begin to break into melodies and harmonies and raise such a tune that will reach the Supreme Concourse and rejoice and exhilarate the holy ones.” He, likewise, advises her to say that “the entering into this Divine Cause is accompanied by everlasting honor and eternal sovereignty [8]
“Soon the beloved Guardian's messages began to reach me, urging me never to become discouraged, rather to redouble my efforts, and guiding me with his unfailing wisdom. [9] Indeed, throughout his ministry Shoghi Effendi's esteem for her and her services was clearly evident. His love for her and his warm encouragement of her work lasted till the end of his life and are recorded in the tender words he addressed to her in many letters: “I feel deeply attached to your work.” [10] “Your name I assure you will adorn the annals of the Cause and will inspire many a Baha'i pioneer in future. You cannot realize the splendour and significance of the work you are doing at present.” [11] “I will pray that you may be guided and fortified by the spirit of our beloved Master Who I am sure is guiding you, watching over you and sustaining you in your labours. Persevere and never lose heart.” [12]
A survey of Leonora Armstrong's tireless pioneer activities must necessarily span six decades of continual service. Her achievements marked a high tide of human endeavor. Whether in her constant teaching of individuals, her historic travels, the publicity she garnered for the Cause wherever she went, her herculean labor of translating, publishing and disseminating Baha'i literature both in Portuguese and Spanish, her work in spreading the Message through correspondence, or her eventual material contributions to the community, she stands out eminently distinguished. Through the years she also engaged in social service whenever possible, and became known in the press as the “Nurse of the Poor”.
The first decade of these activities is marked by extraordinary travels. Twice during the ten years, her father sent funds for a return visit to New York. By careful economy she was able to visit many places along the way. By sailing third class, she included countries not on her route. In this way she was able to emblazon the Cause of God in city after city up the Brazilian coast, into the heartland of the Amazon basin, and throughout the Caribbean Sea. Between these travels she raised the banner of the Faith in Sao Paulo, in Rio and particularly in Bahia through extended stays. A number of souls were attracted to the beauty of the Teachings. Alone in Manaus on the Amazon River, to cite one instance, during a short visit she proclaimed the Faith to 3,400 souls in public meetings and school gatherings.
In 1927 she became the first Baha'i to visit and speak of the Cause in Colombia, Venezuela, Curacao, Trinidad, Barbados, Haiti, British Guiana and Dutch Guiana, thus complementing and completing Martha Root's unfulfilled intention of raising the Call of God in all the Latin American countries. The visits of this pure, self-effacing soul, so modest in her personal life, were, paradoxically, always amply reported in the press. And she often enjoyed the spontaneous cooperation and support of various organizations in arranging public meetings. All this occurred in some places within hours of her arrival!
During her stay in Santos Leonora began her prodigious and historic task of translating Baha'i literature into Portuguese; at first it was a simple pamphlet to distribute at her talks - often typed over and over on her small portable typewriter - later, as her skills developed, an intense outpouring of the major works of the Faith. In the end she had rendered into Portuguese a wide range of literature, and for several decades, under the guidance and with the generous assistance of Shoghi Effendi, had personally seen to its publication. When a Baha'i Publishing Trust was founded in Rio, and the National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil came into being in 1961, she worked closely with these institutions, adding such long and weighty works as God Passes By and The Dawn-Breakers to her already highly-distinguished record of accomplishments.
By the late 1920s, having made many contacts in Spanish-speaking countries, Leonora was increasingly concerned with producing adequate Spanish translations as well. She decided to proceed to Spain for a course of study in the University of Madrid to better equip herself. In July 1930 she boarded a French ship which first took her to several ports of call in West Africa and then to Barcelona. As always she taught along the way. From Barcelona she proceeded to Madrid where through her efforts she was able to found the first Baha'i group of Spain. As she fell seriously ill for a time, she was unable to enter the course at the University and shortly felt inspired to ask the Guardian for permission to come to the Holy Land and visit the Baha'i Holy Places. He cabled her “MOST WELCOME” on 2 November 1930. [13]
Leonora describes how, when meeting Shoghi Effendi, she “was awed, overwhelmed, by the spiritual majesty of his presence, his love, his purity”. [14]
She frequently visited the Holy Shrines to pour out her heart in prayer.
She had the immense privilege of meeting Bahiyyih Kthanum , the beloved sister of 'Abdu'l-Baha on several occasions. “On the day set for my departure, the Greatest Holy Leaf was sitting near the door and I knelt down before her in tears, while she gently, lovingly, stroked my head.” [15]
In saying goodbye, Shoghi Effendi emphasized that “of first importance is the direct teaching work, second in importance is the translation, and third social service, if you have time for it" [16]
During the 1930s more traveling teachers visited South America and additional pioneer settlers gradually strengthened the work Leonora had begun. This was especially so after the launching of the first American Seven Year Plan in 1937 which aimed at the systematic spread of the Faith throughout Latin America.
For Leonora these visits reached their culmination when her beloved May Maxwell traveled to South America in February 1940. They were able to spend some wonderful days together in Rio, and then Mrs. Maxwell went on to Argentina, with the intention of visiting Bahia on her return trip. Leonora went home to Bahia to prepare for this visit, only to be met upon her arrival with the tragic news of May Maxwell's passing in Buenos Aires. She was able to attend the funeral and through this visit came in contact with the handful of Baha'is in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
 |
1946 - LSA of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (those seated) – Leonora is front row third from right
(Baha’i News, May 1948)
The following year, 1941, Leonora married an Englishman, Harold Armstrong, whom she had known for some time. He was destined to support and comfort her through the years ahead in her unceasing Baha'i services. During the next two decades Leonora and her husband lived in various places in Brazil and raised several adopted children. In 1946 she helped form the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Rio itself. During the 1950s she spent much time at their farm outside Rio and continued her important translation work. At this time she added Braille to her skills and undertook the transcription and distribution of Baha'i literature in Portuguese Braille.In 1961 the first National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil was established. Leonora could now rest assured that all the activities she had begun would be consolidated and perpetuated. One might have thought her work was drawing to a close, passed to the hands of the many capable younger believers. The crowning labors of Leonora's sixty years of international service, however, were still ahead. For it was in June of 1973 that the Universal House of Justice appointed her to membership on the Continental Board of Counselors in South America. Characteristically overwhelmed, and apprehensive regarding her own inadequacies, she nevertheless flew off to her first meeting with that Board in Lima, Peru. From the outset it was clear that the spiritual influence of direct contact with her fellow-believers in the various lands she would visit was to be far-reaching. During those first memorable meetings in Lima, young and old literally sat at her feet imbibing the radiant love, the immense tenderness, which flowed forth in waves of healing from her whole being. It was always a spiritual feast to be with her. She seemed to move in the shadow of her Guardian, and one always felt him close in her presence.
Among the joyful events of Leonora's latter years were the visits to Latin America made by the Hand of the Cause, Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum, the Guardian's widow, and the daughter of May and Sutherland Maxwell. It was in her presence, in April 1971, at the time of the dedication of the Mother Temple of Latin America in Panama, that the homage mentioned earlier, was paid to Leonora. On the several occasions that Amatu'l-Baha visited Brazil, they spent as much time together as possible. Ruhiyyih Khanum recollects a little of their long association in the following words:
“When Leonora went to South America she was over twenty five years old and I was fifteen years younger. My first vivid recollection of her was when, on one of her return visits to America in the 1920s, she came to the hotel in New York where my mother and I were staying; she was tall and slender with brown hair, a sallow complexion and droopy brown eyes in which was an expression of sincerity, of purpose and purity of spirit. Her personality seemed to have united the tenacity of Martha Root with an unsureness of herself which she constantly overcame through her complete consecration to serving the Faith. I must have seen her many times before this, because she and my mother had a profound bond of love and I loved her too. Mother always took a keen personal interest in people and was very generous; she disapproved of Leonora's wardrobe and insisted that at her expense she go buy some summer frocks and other things. The only other intimate thing I remember about those hours we had together was her description of how she had been living - at least in the beginning - in the home of a family in a single room which had no doors or windows except one big door that opened onto the garden; she was greatly disturbed by two things, the huge cockroaches that crawled across the ceiling and sometimes fell on her in bed in the night, and the fact that she had an unwelcome admirer who would come into the garden and heave huge bouquets through the open door as a tribute to his would-be lady love. When she closed the door, in that tropical heat, she suffocated!
“Shoghi Effendi considered Leonora as one of the Faith's outstanding and most distinguished believers in the West, he never forgot the great historic significance of her arising to pioneer in Latin America before the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and in his letters to her he warmly praised her exemplary and ceaseless services, in which he took a keen interest.
“Our friendship, strong and deep in both our lives, was renewed and reinforced on the rare but prized occasions when we met during my visits to Latin America and spent as much time together as my schedule permitted ; the last time was at the meeting of the South American Counselors in Lima, Peru, at the end of the Green Light Expedition in 1975; always we would talk about my mother - our greatest mutual bond.
“The study of such a life as Leonora's, a life of complete consecration to Baha'u'llah and His teachings, a life of ceaseless work which lasted till a few hours before her passing at the age of eighty-five, a life in which it never even occurred to Leonora that she was sacrificing - such a life is a manual for every generation of Baha'is to study and presents an enduring challenge to all those who would follow in her footsteps.”
Seven years of service were left to Leonora after she was appointed a Counselor. Her back somewhat humped, bent by years and years of translation and typing, literally often day and night, her neck stiff and increasingly painful, the valiant and indomitable Leonora, far from relaxing her efforts, extended her activities and travels immensely. Her husband had already passed away and between her trips she was able to concentrate long hours on the translation work. Gradually, however, her health began to fail. A serious illness finally confined her to bed, and during her last months she was moved to Bahia - the city where she had labored so arduously to establish the Faith sixty years before, a city now boasting ten thousand believers. Here the friends lovingly ministered to her last needs. Even in the final week of her life she rallied her strength for one last outpouring. Propped up in her bed she wrote out a translation of the newly-arrived English version of Baha'u'llah's Long Healing Prayer and of the Fire Tableta - final legacy for her many spiritual children.
The longing for service came to her young. The vastness of Latin America was the arena of her sacrifice. There she poured forth her life, and having given up the world, she gained the Kingdom. At the end she was incarnate light. Even before' she slipped from her earthly vesture, the unearthly radiance of her inner being surrounded those attending her. On 17 October 1980 her precious spirit quietly took flight to its celestial Source.
The Universal House of Justice promptly cabled the following tribute:
HEARTS SADDENED PASSING DISTINGUISHED COUNSELLOR LEONORA STIRLING ARMSTRONG HERALD OF THE KINGDOM BELOVED HANDMAIDEN ABDULBAHA SPIRITUAL MOTHER SOUTH AMERICA. HER SIXTY YEARS VALIANT DEVOTED SERVICES CAUSE BRAZIL SHEDS LUSTRE ANNALS FAITH THAT PROMISING LAND. REQUESTING MEMORIAL SERVICES MASHRIQULADHKARS WILMETTE PANAMA URGE ALL COMMUNITIES BRAZIL LIKEWISE HOLD SERVICES. OFFERING ARDENT SUPPLICATIONS MOST HOLY SHRINE PROGRESS HER RADIANT SPIRIT ABHA KINGDOM.
- Hooper Dunbar (The Baha’i World 1979-1983)
[1] Unpublished memoirs
[2] Unpublished memoirs
[3] Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Baha, Baha’i International Archives
[4] Unpublished memoirs
[5] Unpublished memoirs
[6] Unpublished memoirs
[7] Unpublished memoirs.
[8] Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i International Archives
[9] Unpublished memoirs
[10] From a handwritten postscript of Shoghi Effendi in a
letter written to Leonora Holsapple, 30 July 1932
[11] From a handwritten postscript of Shoghi Effendi in a
letter written to Leonora Holsapple, 18 August 1927
[12] From a handwritten postscript of Shoghi Effendi in a
letter written to Leonora Holsapple, 5 April 1930
[13] Cablegram of Shoghi Effendi, 2 November 1930, Baha'i,
International Archives
[14] Unpublished memoirs
[15] Unpublished memoirs
[16] Unpublished memoirs
(‘The Baha’i World’, 1979-1983)
