 | The text below this notice was generated by a computer, it still needs to be checked for errors and corrected. If you would like to help, view the original document by clicking the PDF scans along the right side of the page. Click the edit button at the top of this page (notepad and pencil icon) or press Alt+Shift+E to begin making changes. When you are done press "Save changes" at the bottom of the page. |
SARAH FLORENCE FITZNER
1906—1980 Knight of Bahá’u’lláh
On 19 October 1906 Sarah Florence Parry was born in Wrexham, Wales. Her family emigrated to Australia when she was six years old.
Florence became a teacher in the Education Department of South Australia. In 1927 a fellow—teacher, Miss Bertha Mochan (who later, as Mrs. Bertha Dobbins, became the Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for the New Hebrides) invited her to a meeting in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hyde-Dunn in North Adelaide. Florence asked her friend, Harold Fitzner,1 to accompany her, and they became regular attendants at these meetings. The sincerity and love of the couple who became affectionately known in the Australian Bahá’í community as ‘Father and Mother Dunn’, and the truth and beauty of the Bahá’í Writings,
‘ See ‘In Memoriam', The Bahá’í World, vol. XV, p. 449.
727
deeply affected Florence and Harold. In 1928 they embraced the Cause.
In 1931 Florence married Harold Fitzner; this was one of the first Bahá’í marriages in Australia. They held firesides in their home regularly and many enquirers who attended subsequently accepted the Faith. Florence was a hard-working teacher of the Bahá’í Faith. Accompanied by her husband she undertook much extension teaching in country towns of South Australia, in addition to serving on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Adelaide, supporting various meetings at the Bahá’í Centre, assisting with children’s classes, visiting the sick and elderly and other activities. They attended the Intercontinental Conference in New Delhi in 1953 where, in response to the great call issued by Shoghi Effendi for believers to arise and go to the virgin territories, they offered their services as pioneers to Portuguese Timor. Many difficulties had to be overcome before they reached their pioneering goal but with much prayer, persistence and dedicated effort Harold arrived in Portuguese Timor in June 1954; Florence joined him four months later. After his arrival he met distrust
Sarah Florence Fitzner
[Page 728]
728
and opposition from some of the authorities and Florence helped to make life easier for Harold by sharing the problems and the tasks of daily living. Florence and Harold were honoured by the Guardian with the title, Knights of Bahz’l‘u’lla’lh.l
In time, opposition was overcome and they were accepted through their lives of loving service. They taught English to many students —Portuguese, Chinese, Timorese, Arabs and others of mixed blood—and created a schoolroom in their new house which was built in Dili. These students, many of whom later went abroad for further study, also learned from the Fitzners about the Bahá’í Faith. The Faith could not be taught openly in Portuguese Timor but, as the years passed, some of the local people embraced it.
Harold’s deteriorating health became a cause of great concern for Florence. After a protracted period of illness he died at his post in 1969. Love for the Faith and for the Timorese people prompted Florence to remain serving in Timor and to continue teaching English. In 1973 she was privileged to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She made occasional visits to Adelaide for dental and medical reasons and it was during one of these visits in 1974 that revolution broke out, making it unwise for her to return to her beloved Timor where she had served for twenty years. She continued teaching the Faith and supporting Bahá’í activities in her own and other areas of Australia, and in 1978 went as a travelling teacher to Tonga, Fiji and both islands of New Zealand. Health problems gradually prevented her from doing all she would have liked to have done in service to the Cause she loved so dearly. Florence passed to the Abhá Kingdom on 7 September 1980. After her passing the following cable was sent by the Universal House of Justice:
SADDENED NEWS PASSING DEVOTED MAIDSERVANT KNIGHT BAHAULLAH FLORENCE FITZNER HER DEVOTED SERVICES AND THOSE OF HER LATE HUSBAND HAROLD IN ESTABLISHING FAITH TIMOR LOVINGLY REMEMBERED. CONVEY SYMPATHY FAMILY FRIENDS PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HER SOUL KINGDOMS GOD.
J AMES CHITTLEBOROUGH ‘ Sec Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá’í World. p. 69.
THE BAHA’
lWORLD
