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ROSEMARY SALA
1902—1980
EXTEND LOVING SYMPATHY PASSING YOUR BELOVED COMPANION AFTER LONG YEARS UNITED SERVICE FAITH. HAVE SENT FOLLOWING CABLE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY CANADA QUOTE EXPRESS OUR PROFOUND SORROW PASSING ROSEMARY SALA DEDICATED VETERAN SERVANT BAHAULLAH PIONEER TEACHING FIELDS AFRICA AMERICAS MEMBER FIRST NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CANADA TIRELESS EFFECTIVE DEVOTED BAHAI TEACHER THROUGHOUT LONG BAHAI LIFE. ASSURE PRAYERS HOLIEST SHRINES PROGRESS HER SOUL WORLDS GOD UNQUOTE
Universal House of J ustice 26 February 1980
When we returned to Canada in 1968, after fourteen years of pioneering in South Africa, we felt we had not done much for the Faith in those long years. In fact, we believed that any imprint we might have made would soon be
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Rosemary Sala
blown over by the sand of time and be forgotten. After Rosemary winged away on 20 February 1980 in Guadalajara, Mexico, due to cerebral thrombosis, I was flooded with messages from our former pioneer post.
The Evening Post of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, under the headline ‘Service for Former P.E. School Library Pioneer’, published the following item, together with a picture of Rosemary, in its issue of 18 March 1980:
‘A memorial service for a former Port Elizabeth woman, Mrs. Rosemary Sala, who pioneered school libraries in black schools, was held in New Brighton at the weekend. The service was held at the Cowan High School, New Brighton.
‘Mr. Frank Tonjeni, principal of Cowan High School, said Mrs. Sala was interested in black education while she lived in South Africa. “She was a very energetic woman and established libraries in all our secondary and high schools.”
‘Mrs. Sala also established a Sala Prize at three of the schools for leadership and scholastic achievement. “Above the door of our school library there is a plaque bearing her name,” Mr. Tonjeni said.
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‘Her permit to enter New Brighton was withdrawn in May, 1967.’
Because of the Apartheid laws, social contact in South Africa was very difficult. Rosemary succeeded in obtaining from the authorities permission to enter black townships, where she established libraries in eleven schools, placed over 10,000 books, and brought enjoyment to thousands of students. She did this for ten years, her permit being renewed from year to year. Later it was restricted, and finally it was withdrawn.
Bahá’í News, South and West Africa, states in its February 1980 issue:
‘She is known in all the schools of New Brighton, Kwa Zakele and Zwide, and will live in our midst for ages as the mother of the Bahá’í’s of New Brighton. Many times have I heard her say: “I have said the Greatest Name all over New Brighton and Kwa Zakele.” . . . I will always remember her as the kindly lady who was never frightened—even of waiting for the local bus to take her into town . . . She was unceasing in her efforts to attract all levels of society to the Faith . . . I, for one, will never rest until I have done all the things she herself would have done for the Bahá’í’s of the townships in Port Elizabeth.”
There were many more similar eulogies.
Rosemary was born Mary Scott Gillies in Glasgow, Scotland, on 4 May 1902 to Captain and Mrs. Malcolm N. Gillies. When she was four her family brought her to Montreal, Quebec, where she was raised in a strict Presbyterian home. She wanted to become an architect, but the only faculty that would then accept women students was in New York City, and her mother would not allow her to move. She, therefore, had to be satisfied with graduating from Macdonald Teachers’ College, near Montreal.
In December 1927, in Montreal, three young Bahá’ísflRowland Estall, George F. Spendlove1 and myself—started the first organized Bahá’í youth group of North America. Within months a few young people were attracted, among whom was a teacher who taught in the same school as Rosemary. She invited Rosemary who came out of curiosity. The following summer Rosemary was invited to the Bahá’í school in Green Acre where she was deeply influenced by the re‘ See ‘In Memoriam‘, The Bahti’l’ World, vol. XIII, p. 895.
THE BAHA’!’ WORLD
nowned teacher, Mrs. Elizabeth Greenleaf.2 That autumn Rosemary declared her faith in Bahá’u’lláh. Since we had three ‘Mary’s’ in our youth group, George Spendlove gave Mary Gillies the name Rosemary which remained with her all her life. She was soon elected youth delegate to the National Convention in Wilmette and was active in various national activities with the result that long after our marriage which took place in 1934 I was known only as ‘the husband of Rosemary Gillies’. During the past forty years we have attended many conventions, conferences, summer and winter schools, and on almost every occasion—even as recently as a year ago—I have seen young Bahá’ís with eager eyes, who have read her article ‘Marriage in the Bahá’í Faith’,3 corner her and become absorbed in deep discussion. Rosemary often said that because of that article she seems to have been used, all these years, as an unofficial Bahá’í marriage counsellor.
Rosemary and I worked together as one breath and I beg forgiveness if, in attempting to describe her services, I enumerate my own. In August 1938, while in Green Acre, we tried to induce a couple to pioneer in Latin America under the first Seven Year Plan. By the time we reached our home in St. Lambert, Quebec, we realized that while trying to inspire others we had talked ourselves into going. After six months of intensive preparation and an immersion course in Spanish, we set sail the following spring for Caracas, Venezuela, where we stayed for a year.4 We found the experience so joyful and thrilling that the desire to pioneer remained with us for the rest of our lives. On our return journey to Canada we drove sixteen hours a day for eight days on a primitive, tortuous mountain road from Caracas to Bogota, Colombia. Since we were the first Bahá’ís to make that trip, Rosemary invoked the Greatest Name in every valley and hamlet. We returned to Caracas in 1946 during the course of a fourmonth lecture tour which took us to every country in Latin America except Paraguay. One of the highlights for us was our visit, in Buenos Aires, to the resting-place of Mrs.
3 See ‘In Memoriam’, The Bahá’í World, vol. IX, p. 608. 3 The Bahá’í World, vol. V1], p. 761. 4 The Bahá’í’ Centenary: 1844—1944, p. 197.
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IN MEMORIAM
May Maxwell where we offered prayers. In 1947 we were back in Venezuela, this time during the course of a Caribbean teaching tour.
In Canada we were instrumental in the creation of the first summer conferences and the Laurentian Bahá’í School; and, as mem bers of the Canadian National Teaching Com-.
mittee, we helped to prepare the Canadian community for the election, in 1948, of its first National Spiritual Assembly on which we served for the folloWing six years.1
In 1952 Rosemary went on her first pilgrimage to Haifa as a guest of the Guardian. Her second visit to the Holy Land was in 1968 as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa.
With the announcement of the Ten Year Crusade we volunteered to pioneer. The Guardian suggested Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean, but since a visa was refused he gave us Zululand as a second choice. We arrived in May 1954 and settled on a trading post in a native reserve, with no telephone or electricity. We were two hours’ distance from the nearest doctor or police station. To our great disappointment, after one year our permit was not renewed. We moved to Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, where we lived for thirteen years. We had to return to Canada for three years which was a culture shock in reverse—and were happy to pioneer again, in 1971, this time to Guadalajara, Mexico. Previous to this, however, we made a tour of the Far East. We travelled all over Mexico, attended the Merida Conference and made two side trips to Panama. Rosemary spent many weeks preparing illustrated albums about historical events related to the Faith which are on display at the Bahá’í Shrine in Montreal.
Amatu’l—Baha Rúḥíyyih Khánum wrote this about Rosemary: ‘She was a remarkable woman, a very sweet one, and her devotion to the Faith was truly exemplary. It never flagged but went on year after year to the very last breath. May we all die as she did, with the good pleasure of Bahá’u’lláh. She was also a devoted friend and a loyal one, and I shall miss very much receiving her letters Rosemary will certainly go down as one of
1 Shoghi Effendi in Messages to Canada. pp, 45. 74.
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Canada’s outstanding Bahá’ís as the Canadian community emerged and grew in stature and strength.’
The Hand of the Cause John Robarts and his wife, Audrey, life-long friends, chose for Rosemary the following from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: O ye handmaid Of the merciful Lord! How many queens' of this world laid down their heads on a pillow of dust and disappeared. N0 fruit was left of them, no trace, no sign, not even their names .. . Not so the handmaids who ministered at the Threshold of God; these have shone forth like glittering stars in the skies of ancient glory, shedding their splendours across all the reaches of time.2
EMERIC SALA
