Bahá’í World/Volume 8/The Passing of Queen Marie of Rumania
Her Late Majesty Queen Marie of Rumania.
The inscription reads: “To Shoghi Effendi with a message of love and faith. Marie.”
VI
THE PASSING OF QUEEN MARIE OF RUMANIA
1
WORDS OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
"We cherish the hope that one of the kings of the earth will, for the sake of God, arise for the triumph of this wronged, this oppressed people. Such a king will be eternally extolled and glorified. . . .”
2
TRIBUTES PAID BY QUEEN MARIE OF RUMANIA TO THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
1.
A WOMAN brought me the other day a Book. I spell it with a capital letter because it is a glorious Book of love and goodness, strength and beauty.
She gave it to me because she had learned I was in grief and sadness and wanted to help. . . .She put it into my hands saying: “You seem to live up to His teachings.” And when I opened the Book I saw it was the word of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, prophet of love and kindness, and of His Father the great teacher of international good-will and understanding—of a religion which links all creeds.
Their writings are a great cry toward peace, reaching beyond all limits of frontiers, above all dissension about rites and dogmas. It is a religion based upon the inner spirit of God, upon that great, not-to-be-overcome verity that God is love, meaning just that. It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues, suspicions, evil words, all aggressive patriotism even, are outside the one essential law of God, and that special beliefs are but surface things whereas the heart that beats with divine love knows no tribe nor race. It is a wondrous Message that Bahá’u’lláh and His Son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have given us! They have not set it up aggressively, knowing that the germ of eternal truth which lies at its core cannot but take root and spread.
There is only one great verity in it: Love, the mainspring of every energy, tolerance towards each other, desire of understanding each other, knowing each other, helping each other, forgiving each other.
It is Christ’s Message taken up anew, in the same words almost, but adapted to the thousand years and more difference that lies between the year one and today. No man could fail to be better because of this Book.
I commend it to you all. If ever the name of Bahá’u’lláh or ‘Abdu’l-Bahá comes to your attention, do not put Their writings from you. Search out Their Books, and let Their glorious, peace-bringing, love-creating words and lessons sink into your hearts as they have into mine.
One’s busy day may seem too full for religion. Or one may have a religion that satisfies. But the teachings of these gentle, wise and kindly men are compatible with all religion, and with no religion.
Seek them, and be the happier.”
(From the Toronto Daily Star, May 4, 1926.)
2.
Of course, if you take the stand that creation
has no aim, it is easy to dismiss life
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and death with a shrug and
a "that ends it all; nothing comes after.”
But how difficult it is so to dismiss the universe, our world, the animal and vegetable world, and man. How clearly one sees a plan in everything. How unthinkable it is that the miraculous development that has brought man’s body, brain and spirit to what it is, should cease. Why should it cease? Why is it not logical that it goes on? Not the body, which is only an instrument, but the invisible spark or fire within the body which makes man one with the wider plan of creation.
My words are lame, and why should I grope for meanings when I can quote from One who has said it so much more plainly, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Who I know would sanction the use of His words:
"The whole physical creation is perishable. Material bodies are composed of atoms. When these atoms begin to separate, decomposition sets in. Then comes what we call death.
"This composition of atoms which constitutes the body or mortal element of any created being, is temporary. When the power of attraction which holds these atoms together is withdrawn, the body as such ceases to exist.
“With the soul it is different. The soul is not a combination of elements, is not composed of many atoms, is of one indivisible substance and therefore eternal.
“It is entirely out of the order of physical creation; it is immortal! The soul, being an invisible, indivisible substance, can suffer neither disintegration nor destruction. Therefore there is no reason for its coming to an end.
"Consider the aim of creation: Is it possible that all is created to evolve and develop though countless ages with merely this small goal in view—a few years of man’s life on earth? Is it not unthinkable that this should be the final aim of existence? Does a man cease to exist when he leaves his body? If his life comes to an end, then all previous evolution is useless. All has been for nothing. All those eons of evolution for nothing! Can we imagine that creation had no greater aim than this?
The very existence of man’s intelligence proves his immortality. His intelligence is the intermediary between his body and his spirit. When man allows his spirit, through his soul, to enlighten his understanding, then does he contain all creation; because man being the culmination of all that went before, and thus superior to all previous evolutions, contains all the lower already-evolved world within himself. Illumined by the spirit through the instrumentality of the soul, man’s radiant intelligence makes him the crowning-point of creation!”
Thus does ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explain to us the soul—the most convincing elucidation I know.
(From the Toronto Daily Star, September 28, 1926.)
3.
At first we all conceive of God as something or somebody apart from ourselves. We think He is something or somebody definite, outside of us, whose quality, meaning and so-to-say "personality” we can grasp with our human, finite minds, and express in mere words.
This is not so. We cannot, with our earthly faculties, entirely grasp His meaning —any more than we can really understand the meaning of Eternity.
God is certainly not the old Fatherly gentleman with the long beard that in our childhood we saw pictured sitting amongst clouds on the throne of judgment, holding the lightning of vengeance in His hand.
God is something simpler, happier, and yet infinitely more tremendous. God is All, Everything. He is the Power behind all beings. He is the inexhaustible source of supply, of love, of good, of progress, of achievement. God is therefore Happiness.
His is the voice within us that shows us good and evil.
But mostly we ignore or misunderstand
this voice. Therefore did He choose his Elect
to come down amongst us upon earth to
make clear His word, His real meaning.
Therefore the Prophets; therefore Christ,
Muḥammad, Bahá’u’lláh, for man needs
from time to time a voice upon earth to
bring God to him, to sharpen the realization
of the existence. of the true God. Those
voices sent to us had to become flesh, so that
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with our earthly ears
we should be able to hear and understand.
Those who read their Bible with “peeled” eyes will find in almost every line some revelation. But it takes long life, suffering or some sudden event to tear all at once the veil from our eyes, so that we can truly see. . . .
Sorrow and suffering are the surest and also the most common instructors, the straightest channel to God—that is to say, to that inner something within each of us which is God.
Happiness beyond all understanding comes with this revelation that God is within us, if we will but listen to His voice. We need not seek Him in the clouds. He is the All-Father whence we came and to Whom we shall return when, having done with this earthly body, we pass onward.
If I have repeated myself forgive me. There are so many ways of saying things, but what is important is the Truth which lies in all the many ways of expressing it.
(From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Monday, September 27, 1926.)
4.
"Lately a great hope has come to me from one, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. I have found in His and His Father, Bahá’u’lláh’s Message of Faith all my yearning for real religion satisfied. If you ever hear of Bahá’ís or of the Bahá’í Movement which is known in America, you will know what that is. What I mean: these Books have strengthened me beyond belief and I am now ready to die any day full of hope. But I pray God not to take me away yet for I still have a lot of work to do.”
5.
“The Bahá’í teaching brings peace and understanding.
"It is like a wide embrace gathering together all those who have long searched for words of hope.
“It accepts all great prophets gone before, it destroys no other creeds and leaves all doors open.
"Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers of many confessions and wearied of their intolerence towards each other, I discovered in the Bahá’í teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and misunderstood.
“Unity instead of strife, hope instead of condemnation, love instead of hate, and a great reassurance for all men.”
6.
“The Bahá’í teaching brings peace to the soul and hope to the heart.
“To those in search of assurance the words of the Father are as a fountain in the desert after long wandering.” 1934.
7.
“More than ever today when the world is facing such a crisis of bewilderment and unrest, must we stand firm in Faith seeking that which binds together instead of tearing asunder.
“To those searching for light, the Bahá’í Teachings offer a star which will lead them to deeper understanding, to assurance, peace and good will with all men.” 1936.
3
QUEEN MARIE OF RUMANIA AND THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
AMONG the Bahá’í treasures in the International Bahá’í Archives at Haifa there lies an exquisite and precious brooch, preserved as a memorial of the first of the queens of the world who recognized and acknowledged the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.
Queen Marie of Rumania did not hesitate
about this recognition nor was she diffident
about giving it expression. She was at the
time in bitter need, in profound,
overwhelming sorrow. The sweetness, the
tenderness, the depth of sympathy and
helpfulness which she found at once in
boundless measure in the Divine Message
made an instantaneous appeal and opened
her heart to seek and welcome the knowledge
of its [Page 272]
manifold
beauty and truth.
She felt the precious,
warm loving-kindness of the Heavenly
Teachers, the perfection of their
understanding. Her soul was satisfied.
Here at last was that for which she had
hungered. Here was peace, the reality of
peace: a breath upon
a fevered world from that guarded inner
shrine where peace has its inviolate home.
She was in bitter need. Those who were near and dear to her surrounded her with love and sympathy and consolations; for they too knew grief and pain and felt with one who suffered so acutely as she. But anguish of spirit had awakened in her a desire for something other than the sincerest human condolence. She faced the mystery of death and love. No word, no touch, however gentle, that came only from a knowledge of this fleeting human life could suffice her now. Loneliness had broken the hold of earth on her. She longed, as she had never longed before, for God.
And God came.
Jesus Christ divided those to whom the Divine Message is communicated into four classes: those who are too self-absorbed to receive any impression, those who are able to receive only a shallow impression, and those who are deeply impressed by the truth but are also impressed by things not true, and finally those who are single-minded in the love and service of truth. It was the unique distinction of Queen Marie that, living in a special sphere where the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are at their maximum, she accepted and held fast to the New Revelation. She was the first to walk in that narrow path in which, when it is made broader, all the kings and queens and rulers of the earth will follow her.
The time of an Advent is and ever has been an epoch of the severest test for humanity. “Who may abide the day of His coming?” cried the ancient prophet; “and who shall stand when He appeareth?” For none is the test so hard as for the great and rich. “Know ye in truth,” said Bahá’u’lláh, "that wealth is a mighty barrier between the seeker and his desire, the lover and his beloved. The rich, but for a few, shall in no wise attain the court of His presence nor enter the city of content and resignation.” For none among the great and rich is the test so hard as for royalty. Alone among those of royal blood, alone among her sister-queens, Marie of Rumania recognized the dawning of the Day of Days and acclaimed in Bahá’u’lláh the glory of the Father. Therefore this signal privilege has been accorded her; and the ornament which she presented as a sign of gratitude to the Bahá’í teacher who brought her the Divine message is honored with a place among the holy relics of the early heroes of the Cause who first upheld among man the Banner of the Manifest King of Kings.
Marie, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh, was born in the purple; but she had this special distinction that in her veins ran the blood of the only two royalties to whom Bahá’u’lláh, when He announced His Advent to the world’s rulers, addressed words of commendation. She was on her mother’s side the granddaughter of Czar Alexander II, who abolished serfdom, and on her father’s side of Queen Victoria; both of whom Bahá’u’lláh addressed in words different from the stern or minatory terms used by Him towards the King of Prussia, the Emperors of Austria and France, and the Sultan of Turkey and the Sháh of Persia.
She was herself an outstanding and radiant personality, vigorous and daring, devoted to idealistic and humanitarian projects. A traveler who in 1909, before her accession to the throne, visited her summer home in Sinaia, Rumania, at a time when it was unoccupied by her, wrote afterwards in The Bahá’í Magazine:
“We were deeply impressed with the spiritual atmosphere of her living apartment furnished largely with her own handiwork, the carving of the furniture, the paintings, the beautiful altar, all made by herself and all indicative of a deeply spiritual nature. Her books, her thoughts, as one gleaned in a hasty passage through her home, were such as to indicate the kind and spiritual ruler she has become.”
After her death, an old friend who had known her since they played as girls together in Malta in 1888 wrote of her as follows:
"No one who ever had the privilege of
personal or intimate acquaintance with
Queen Marie could fail to be impressed by
the greatness of her mind and spirit. Her
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own life story reveals
so well her ardent and
joyous nature, the depth of feeling that
accompanied every thought and action. . . .
The world is the poorer for the passing of
such a noble lady, and a blank, impossible
to fill, is left in the lives of those
who knew her personally. She had passed
through and suffered so much, even her
wonderful health was too sorely tried
and we must be thankful in spite of
the great loss to us all that she
is at rest and spared any further suffering.
Her spirit is surely near us still and
we must try to follow her noble example
of great endurance and courage to face
whatever may await us in these troublous
times.”
LILIAN MCNEILL, World Order IV. 10.
————————
The first tidings of the Bahá’í Teaching were brought to her in the early days of 1926 when her Majesty was in Bucharest and owing to personal sorrow was living in retirement. Martha Root, the best known of the pioneers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, sent her a short note with a copy of Dr. Esslemont’s Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era. The Queen accepted the book and was at once so keenly interested by its message that she sat up over it into the small hours, and the next morning she sent an invitation to Martha to visit her in the Palace on the following day at twelve o’clock.
So quick and strong was the impression made through that interview that the Queen gave it utterance that same year in many ways public as well as private. She found a ready response to her enthusiasm in her young daughter Ileana, afterwards Archduchess Anton, to whom she taught these truths. She wrote to an American friend of hers in Paris, "I have found all my yearnings for real religion satisfied. . . . I am now ready to die any day full of hope; but I pray God not to take me away yet for I still have a lot of work to do.”
* * *
In May and in September 1926 The Toronto Daily Star published from her pen two glowing tributes to the Bahá’í Faith. "It is a wondrous Message,” she wrote, “that Bahá’u’lláh and His son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have given us. They have not set it up aggressively, knowing that the germ of eternal truth which lies at its core cannot but take root and spread. . . . I commend it to you all. If ever the name of Bahá’u’lláh or ‘Abdu’l-Bahá comes to your attention, do not put Their writings from you. Search out Their books and let Their glorious peace-bringing, love-creating words and lessons sink into your hearts as they have into mine.”
* * *
To the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in September the same year she contributed an article on the Faith in the course of which she testified expressly to her acceptance of the truth of a succession of Revelations, a succession of Prophets—"Christ, Muḥammad, Bahá’u’lláh,” she wrote; continuing, "those voices [of God] sent to us had to become flesh so that with our earthly ears we should be able to hear and understand. . . .
* * *
These three articles being syndicated were printed in nearly two hundred American newspapers, and afterwards appeared in several newspapers in the East.
————————
The Guardian of the Bahá’í Cause gratefully acknowledged these spontaneous appreciations. “Moved by an irresistible impulse,” he wrote in the Bahá’í World for 1926-8, “I addressed her Majesty in the name of the Bahá’ís of both East and West a written expression of our joyous admiration and gratitude for the queenly tribute which her Majesty has paid to the beauty and nobility of the Bahá’í Teachings. . . .”
The following is the letter which he received in reply:
Dear Sir,
I was deeply moved on reception of your letter.
Indeed a great light came to me with the message of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It came as all great messages come at an hour of dire grief and inner conflict and distress, so the seed sank deeply.
My youngest daughter finds also great strength and comfort in the teachings of the beloved masters.
We pass on the message from mouth to
mouth and all those we give it to see
a light [Page 274]
suddenly
lighting before them and much
that was obscure and perplexing becomes
simple, luminous and full of hope as never
before.
That my open letter was balm to those suffering for the Cause is indeed a great happiness to me, and I take it as a sign that God accepted my humble tribute.
The occasion given me to be able to express myself publicly was also His work. For indeed it was a chain of circumstances of which each link led me unwittingly one step further, till suddenly all was clear before my eyes and I understood why it had been.
Thus does He lead us finally to our ultimate destiny.
Some of those of my cast wonder at and disapprove my courage to step forward pronouncing words not habitual for crowned Heads to pronounce, but I advance by an inner urge I cannot resist.
With bowed head I recognize that I too am but an instrument in greater Hands, and rejoice in the knowledge.
Little by little the veil is lifting, grief tore it in two. And grief was also a step leading me ever nearer truth, therefore do I not cry out against grief!
May you and those beneath your guidance be blessed and upheld by the sacred strength of those gone before you. MARIE.
[Letter addressed to the Guardian by H.M. Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania]
————————
Martha Root also wrote to her Majesty, and in the reply which she received were these words: ". . . The beautiful truth of Bahá’u’lláh is with me always, a help and an inspiration. What I wrote was because my heart overflowed with gratitude for the revelation you brought me. I am happy if you think I helped. I thought it might bring truth nearer because my words are read by so many. . . .”
In the following year (1927) her Majesty gave another audience to Martha Root; a third audience in 1928 when with her daughter the Princess Ileana she was the guest of the Queen of Yugoslavia in Belgrade; and a fourth in 1929 in the Summer Palace at Balcié. She contributed an encomium of the Cause, charged with warm feeling and beautifully expressed, to the fourth volume of the Bahá’í World; and another more brief but not less significant to the fifth volume. "The Bahá’í Teaching,” she wrote, “brings peace to the soul and hope to the heart. To those in search of assurance the words of the Father are as a fountain in the desert after long wandering.”
It had been for some time her Majesty’s wish and aspiration to visit in person the sacred shrines upon Mount Carmel and to meet in person Shoghi Effendi. In the year 1931 the opportunity, as it seemed, arrived. Accompanied by her youngest daughter her Majesty travelled to the Holy Land and arrived at Haifa with the intention of fulfilling her cherished desire. But fate had ruled otherwise. Unfriendly influences intervened. She did not reach her goal. In a sad letter to Martha Root dated June 28th, 1931, she told of her frustration and of the unwelcome pressure to which she had been subjected.
“Both Ileana and I,” she wrote, “were cruelly disappointed at having been prevented going to the holy Shrines and meeting Shoghi Effendi; but at that time we were going through a cruel crisis and every movement I made was being turned against me and being politically exploited in an unkind way. It caused me a good deal of suffering and curtailed my liberty most unkindly. . . . But the beauty of truth remains and I cling to it through all the vicissitudes of a life become rather sad.”
Early in 1934 her Majesty again received Martha Root in audience in the Controceni Palace in Bucharest and expressed her delight that the Rumanian translation of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era had just been published in Bucharest and that her people were to have the blessing of reading this precious Teaching. In the course of the interview the Queen told of an incident which had happened in Hamburg some months earlier when she was en route to Iceland. As she was driving down the street a girl tossed into the car a little note, and when her Majesty opened it she read the message, “I am so glad to see you in Hamburg because you are a Bahá’í.”
Martha Root’s sixth and final interview
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took place in February
1936 in the same Palace, and was in some
respects the most
touching and significant of all. Her Majesty
spoke of various Bahá’í books, for she used
to purchase them as they came off the press.
She spoke of the depth of the Íqán, and of
the wonderful radiant force of Gleanings
from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. “Even
doubters,” she said, "would find a powerful
strength in it if they could read it alone and
would give their souls time to expand.” She
told how in London she had met a Bahá’í,
Lady Blomfield, who had shown her the
message that Bahá’u’lláh had sent to her
Grandmother, Queen Victoria. She told, too,
of a dear friend of her girlhood who lived
in ‘Akká, Palestine, and knew Shoghi Effendi
and had sent from there pictures of ‘Akká
and Haifa. This friend (Mrs. McNeill)
published afterwards a letter which the
Queen wrote to her at this time:
"Dear ‘little’ Lilian,” it began, "it was indeed nice to hear from you and to think that you are of all things living near Haifa and are, as I am, a follower of the Bahá’í Teachings. It interests me that you are living in that special house; the Teachers so loved flowers, and being English, I can imagine what a lovely garden you have made in that Eastern climate. I was so intensely interested and studied each photo intently. It must be a lovely place and those southeastern landscapes and gardens attract me with a sort of homesickness ever since our Malta days. And the house you live in, so incredibly attractive and made precious by its associations with the Man we all venerate. . . .”
Four days after this, the Queen sent for THE BAHÁ’Í WORLD, her last public tribute to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. It was in due course reproduced in facsimile as a frontispiece to Volume VI, 1936-38, and runs as follows:
“More than ever today when the world is facing such a crisis of bewilderment and unrest, must we stand firm in Faith seeking that which binds together instead of tearing asunder. To those searching for light, the Bahá’í Teachings offer a star which will lead them to deeper understanding, to assurance, peace and goodwill with all men.
The end was drawing near. Her health undermined by her many troubles began to fail. After some months of illness, in July, 1938 she passed away, and leaving this world where for all her royal rank she had known so much of grief and tears she entered that Great Beyond of which she had thought so often and so deeply.
Her death and obsequies were attended with all the ceremonial that befits the passing of a Queen. But who can tell what was the greeting that awaited her on the other side where she learned in an instant how true had been her intuitions of the manifestation of God and where she saw unobscured now by any mortal veil the white eternal splendour of the Truth that she, alone among the earth’s queens, had risen to acclaim.
The Guardian of the Cause and the Bahá’ís generally recognized the distinction of her spiritual station and the greatness of her service to the Cause. In July, 1938 the Guardian on behalf of all the Bahá’ís sent a message of condolence to her daughter the Queen of Yougoslavia to which her Majesty replied expressing "sincere thanks to all Bahá’í followers.” To the Memorial Service held in the Cathedral of Washington, D. C., U. S. A. the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada sent a tribute of flowers. The following sentences are from an account of that ceremony: "On July 25th, 1938, the first anniversary of the death of Queen Marie of Rumania, an impressive memorial service was held in her honor at the Cathedral of Washington in the national capital of the United States. In Bethlehem Chapel on this mid-summer afternoon national dignitaries and humble citizens paid loving tribute to a royal personage whose name stands out with an especial lustre in the history of her time. The spiritual beauty of the service expressed the character of this noble Queen—the first member of royalty to embrace the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
“Arranged by the Rumanian Minister
Radu Irimescu, the service was conducted
by the Reverend Doctor Anson Phelps
Stokes, canon of the Cathedral and former
Secretary of Yale University. Among the
diplomatists present were the British, French
[Page 276]
and Italian Ambassadors
and representatives
of other European embassies and legations.
The Secretary of State, Honorable Cordell
Hull, headed the American delegation which
included government officials and representatives
of the Army and Navy. . . .
“Directly opposite the altar in this intimate chapel stood the imposing floral tribute ‘from the Bahá’í Friends of America’—a cross ten feet in height with a nine-pointed star at its centre. This emblem was designed by Charles Mason Remey and presented in consultation with the National Spiritual Assembly. It was beside the Bahá’í tribute that the Rumanian Minister stood at the conclusion of the service to greet the audience as they passed out, according to the continental custom on such occasions.
“Not only did Queen Marie as the Dowager Queen of Rumania attest her faith in the Divine Cause through private letters; she claimed the spiritual bounty of calling the Teachings to the attention of others.”
In these dark and troublous times, this Day (or is it not rather this Night?) of Judgment, when there is no open vision and when the gift of spirituality is not esteemed, the connection of Queen Marie with the Bahá’í Faith may seem to be but a small matter, the least episode among the multifarious activities of a crowded and brilliant life. But when this sleep in which the world’s soul is shrouded ends at last; when men’s spirits awakening behold the glories and the bounties and the opportunities that have lain about them, unwelcome and unregarded, all these many years, then they will look back upon the past with a new and horrified understanding. They will gaze with amazement and indignation and pity upon the incorrigible blindness of the mighty ones of Europe who despite the manifold warnings of God led their people through misery upon misery and flung them at last into the ultimate abyss of war. But amidst that universal darkness of failure and misrule that fills the palaces and chancelleries of the world men will see one solitary light shining in lone splendor and will acknowledge the true majesty of that one redeeming soul whose high faith caught and reflected far the glory of the breaking Dawn of God. In later times, when the prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled openly before the eyes of all, when the New Jerusalem established in the top of the mountains and "the nations of them that are saved walk in its light and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it”; then men will see treasured among the sacred relics of the first champions of the Bahá’í Faith one royal ornament, a brooch of silver and diamond, the memorial of the first Queen who recognized and acclaimed the Glory of Bahá’u’lláh; and the name and the deed of Queen Marie of Rumania will be on the lips of men forever. GEORGE TOWNSHEND
4
TREASURED MEMORIES
BY LILIAN MCNEILL
IN AN article written by Martha L. Root in World Order, June, 1936, giving an account of various visits to Her (late) Majesty Queen Marie of Rumania, I found the following passage: “What a memorable visit it was! She told me she has a friend in ‘Akká, Palestine, who knows Shoghi Effendi, and this friend has recently sent her Bahá’í pictures of ‘Akká and Haifa. The two were playfellows when they were children and met in Malta.”
I have the great happiness of being that friend and I would like Bahá’ís all over the world to share with me some treasured memories.
In the winter of 1888-89, five happy
little girls played together in the lovely,
sunlit orange gardens of the palace of San
Antonio, Malta. They were the four
daughters of H. R. H. the Duke of Edinburgh,
second son of Queen Victoria, afterwards
Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was at
that time the Commander in Chief of the
British fleet in the Mediterranean; and
[Page 277]
myself, daughter of
Major Harry Barron, Royal
Artillery, in later years Major General Sir
Harry Barron, Governor of Malta for a
short period, and then successively Governor
of Tasmania and of Western Australia.
Our ages ranged from thirteen years to five. I was youngest but one, and being rather delicate, on account of a fall from a pony, could not indulge in the wildest of the games and was taken great care of by the elder sisters, and always called “little” Lilian, a name used ever afterward by Queen Marie.
When in due course we all left Malta, our games were renewed in the gardens of Buckingham Palace and at Clarendon House, their home in London. But we all always treasured those Malta days in our memories as a dream of happiness unforgettable. Those times are fully described in Queen Marie’s book, Story of My Life. We all married very young and our ways lay apart for many years, though we kept in touch.
Queen Marie and I were reunited in close affection through the Bahá’í teachings, with which we both became acquainted about the same time, she in Rumania, I in Palestine.
Nearly ten years ago, making a voyage of discovery in this neighborhood, across country where then only the roughest of tracks existed, I came upon an old house, neglected, some parts almost ruinous. Two gigantic cypress trees, said to be hundreds of years old, stand sentinel beside it. An inside courtyard was surrounded by a thick, high wall. Outside was a little paved terrace through which flows the aqueduct which supplies the orange gardens and the town of ‘Akká, and steps leading down to further terraces of gardens. There was a Bedouin family living in a tent in the garden, and the olive pickers from a village near Carmel had been allowed to live in the lower floor of the house three winters running during the olive harvest, so the state of the place can be imagined!
Nevertheless I saw the possibilities and the poor old house with its vaulted lower rooms had an intense and almost weird fascination for me.
This is how I found the house which in Dr. Esslemont’s book, Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, is described as the "palace of Mazra’ih.” There Bahá’u’lláh and the whole family lived for about two years after leaving the town of ‘Akká before the Mansion of Bahjí became their residence. (In a somewhat similar manner and at much the same time, Queen Marie discovered her castle in Transylvania that she called "Brana the Beloved.”)
It was in May, 1931 when my husband retired from Government service that we took a lease of this house and it was our great privilege to be able to restore it, and make a garden—a proper setting for a dwelling with such sacred associations. Although we found it a good deal altered on the second floor from its condition at the time when Bahá’u’lláh lived there, the main features are unchanged, the vaulted rooms on the ground floor particularly.
There is a rough cement floor in the room downstairs which was Bahá’u’lláh’s own special room. This I left as I found it, in the belief that His feet may have trodden it.
Queen Marie was greatly interested in all we had done to the house, and we always hoped it would be possible for her to come here. This is our “jubilee” year, fifty years this autumn (1938) since we first met, and we had hoped somehow for a reunion. But her serious illness and the unsettled state of this country (Palestine) made it impossible to plan, and now . . .
No one who ever had the privilege of
personal or intimate acquaintance with
Queen Marie could fail to be impressed by
the greatness of her mind and spirit. Her
own life story reveals so well her ardent and
joyous nature, the depth of feeling that
accompanied every thought and action.
Professor Seton-Watson in his History of the
Roumanians has paid eloquent tribute to
her heroism, devotion and courage in the
Great War. Nobody is perfect and there
are always critics, but I generally notice
that the latter are almost invariably people
who had never come into personal contact
with her or perhaps never even seen her at
a distance. What she did for Rumania is
now history and can be best glimpsed in the
touching last message to her people. The
world is the poorer for the passing of such
a noble lady, and a blank, impossible to
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fill, is left in the
lives of those who knew
her personally. She had passed through and
suffered so much, even her wonderful health
was too sorely tried and we must be thankful
in spite of the great loss to us all that
she is at rest and spared any further
suffering. Her spirit is surely near us
still and we must try to follow her noble
example of great endurance and courage to face
whatever may await us in these troublous
times.
The following extracts are taken from various letters to myself in recent years, and through these her own words we surely can feel that Queen Marie speaks to every one of us.
“Dear ‘little’ Lilian, it was indeed nice to hear from you and to think that you are of all things living near Haifa and are, like me, a follower of the Bahá’í teachings. It interests me that you are living in that special house; the Teachers so loved flowers, and being English, I can imagine what a lovely garden you have made in that Eastern climate. I was so intensely interested and studied each photo intently. It must be a lovely place and those south-eastern landscapes and gardens attract me with a sort of homesickness ever since our Malta days. And the house you live in, so incredibly attractive and made precious by its associations with the Man we all venerate. Certainly the times we live in are not easy to understand for those who were brought up as we were. So much has been overthrown, so many conceptions been changed. The methods used today are different from those in our times, and I refrain from criticism though I cannot always admire. Everything seems to have become so much more vulgar somehow, so mercenary, so wanting in a fine ideal. Also money has changed hands, the rich of today are another class. Life has been hard on royalty ever since the war, and yet countries do not seem to have become more prosperous without them. Times are troubled, alas, and this unfortunate . . . war (Ethiopian) has made all things so inflammable and events seem so out of control that one cannot help being anxious.
“And yet who wants war? . . . Who could stand a war today materially or even morally? I really hope that I shall die before there is another war!
“I lead a very quiet life, my household has become small, but I have the feeling of being well loved in the country. My people and I are old associates, we have shared good and bad through forty-three years, and that counts!
"I wonder if I shall ever travel your way again? For the present I have no plans, I sit still and watch the black clouds, and pray for peace. With love and blessing, MARIE.”
5
QUEEN MARIE OF RUMANIA
BY MARTHA L. ROOT
"How great the blessedness that awaits the king who will arise to aid My Cause in My Kingdom, who will detach himself from all else but Me! Such a king is numbered with the companions of the Crimson Ark—the Ark which God has prepared for the people of Bahá. All must glorify his name, must reverence his station, and aid him to unlock the cities with the keys of My Name, the omnipotent Protector of all that inhabit the visible and invisible kingdoms. Such a king is the very eye of mankind, the luminous ornament on the brow of creation, the fountain-head of blessings unto the whole world. Offer up, O people of Bahá, your substance, nay, your very lives, for his assistance.”1
THE first Queen of the world to study and to promote Bahá’u’lláh’s great Teachings has been Her Majesty Queen Marie of Rumania, one of the queens of this twentieth century who stands highest in intellect, in vision, in clear understanding of the
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1 Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 212.
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new universal epoch
now opening. Her
Majesty received the book
Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era by Dr.
J. E. Esslemont and a note from the
writer of this article who
first visited Bucharest, Rumania,
in January, 1926. The Rumanian Queen,
grand-daughter of the renowned Queen
Victoria of the British Empire and of
Czar Alexander II of Russia, both of
whom received Tablets
from Bahá’u’lláh in their day, read
this volume until three o’clock in
the morning and two days later, on
January 30, 1926, received me in
audience in Controceni Palace,
in Bucharest. Her first words after the
greeting were, “I believe these Teachings
are the solution for the world’s problems
today!” The account of that historic morning
appeared in The Bahá’í Magazine in
Washington, in June, 1926, but very
illuminating letters written by Her Majesty
that same year show how deep was her
confirmation. Here is one written to her loved
friend Loie Fuller, an American then residing
in Paris, which after these ten years can
be published for the first time:
"Lately great hope has come to me from one, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a personal follower of Christ. Reading, I have found in His and His Father Bahá’u’lláh’s Message of Faith all my yearnings for real religion satisfied. If you ever hear of Bahá’ís or of the Bahá’í Movement which is known in America you will know what that is! What I mean, these books have strengthened me beyond belief and I am now ready to die any day full of hope; but I pray God not to take me away yet, for I still have a lot of work to do.”
Other letters record that first of all she was teaching her young daughter Ileana about these beautiful truths. For ten years Her Majesty and her daughter, H.R.H. Princess Ileana (now Archduches Anton), have read with interest each new book about the Bahá’í Movement as soon as it came from the press.
As we know she wrote three marvelous articles about these Bahá’í peace Teachings in 1926, and as they were syndicated each article appeared in nearly two hundred newspapers in the United States and Canada. Many millions of people were thrilled to read that a Queen had arisen to promote Bahá’u’lláh’s plan for universal peace. Quickly these articles were translated and published in Europe, China, Japan, Australasia and in the Islands of the seas.
Received in audience by Her Majesty in Pelisor Palace, Sinaia, in 1927, after the passing of His Majesty King Ferdinand, her husband, she graciously gave me an interview, speaking of the Bahá’í Teachings about immortality. She had on her table and on the divan a number of Bahá’í books, for she had just been reading in each of them the Teachings about Life after death. She asked the writer to give her greeting to Shoghi Effendi, to the friends in Írán and to the many American Bahá’ís who she said had been so remarkably kind to her during her trip through the United States the year before. Also, she graciously gave the writer an appreciation of these Bahá’í Teachings in her own hand-writing, for Volume IV. of the BAHÁ’Í WORLD.
Meeting the “Queen again on January 19, 1928, in the Royal Palace in Belgrade, where she and H. R. H. Princess Ileana were guests of the Queen of Jugoslavia—and they had brought some of their Bahá’í books with them—the words I shall remember longest of all that Her dear Majesty said were these: "The ultimate dream which we shall realize is that the Bahá’í channel of thought has such strength, it will serve little by little to become a light to all those searching for the real expression of Truth.”
Another happy audience was in Her
Majesty’s lovely summer palace “Tehna-Yuva,”
at Balciĉ, on the Black Sea, in October,
1929. Again in the home of Archduchess
Anton at Mödling near Vienna she
and her mother received me on August 8,
1932, and in February, 1933, and Her Majesty
made this great statement which was
used as the frontispiece to BAHÁ’Í WORLD,
Volume IV.: “The Bahá’í Teaching brings
peace and understanding. It is like a wide
embrace gathering together all those who
have long searched for words of hope. It
accepts all great prophets gone before, it
destroys no other creeds and leaves all doors
open. Saddened by the continual strife
amongst believers of many confessions and
wearied of their intolerance towards each
other, I discovered in the Bahá’í Teaching
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the real spirit of Christ
so often denied and
misunderstood. Unity instead of strife,
Hope instead of condemnation, Love instead
of hate, and a great reassurance for all
men.”
Then in the audience in Controceni Palace on February 16, 1934, when Her Majesty was told that the Rumanian translation of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era had just been published in Bucharest, she said she was so happy that her people were to have the blessing of reading this precious Teaching.
How beautiful she looked that afternoon —as always—for her loving eyes mirror her mighty spirit; a most unusual Queen is she, a consummate artist, a lover of beauty and wherever she is there is glory. Perhaps too, a Queen is a symbol, people like to have their Queen beautiful and certainly Queen Marie of Rumania is one of the most lovely in this world today. Her clothes, designed by herself, are always a "tout ensemble” creation so harmonious in colors they seem to dress her soul. She received me in her private library where a cheerful fire glowed in the quaint, built-in fireplace; tea was served on a low table, the gold service set being wrought in flowers. There were flowers everywhere, and when she invited me into her bedroom where she went to get the photograph which I like so much, as I saw the noble, majestic proportions of this great chamber with its arched ceiling in Gothic design, I exclaimed in joy, “Your room is truly a temple, a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár!” There were low mounds of hyacinths, flowers which Bahá’u’lláh loved and mentioned often in His Writings; there was a bowl of yellow tulips upon a silken tapestry in yellow gold, a tall deep urn of fragrant white lilacs, and an immense bowl of red roses. Controceni Palace is the most beautiful palace I have seen in any country in the blending of its colors and in its artistic arrangements.
Her Majesty is a writer as well as an artist, and Her Memoirs entitled “The Story of My Life” were just then being published in The Saturday Evening Post. She told me she writes two hours every morning unless her time is invaded by queenly duties, charity duties, family duties. She was pleased with the sincere letters that were pouring in from all continents giving appreciations of her story. She told me the American people are so open-hearted and that from the United States children, professors, farmers’ wives and the smart people had written to her, the tone in all their letters revealing Her Majesty’s entire sincerity and the deep humanity of her character. One teacher wrote Her Majesty that in her childhood each one lived through his own childhood: another said, “All who read your story have their own lives stirred!” The Queen remarked, “And this is a very satisfactory criticism for an author.”
A most pleasing letter had just arrived from Japan from a girl there who thanked God Who had allowed her to live in a period in which such a wonderful book had been written! "This,” said the Queen, “is one of the nicest appreciations I have ever heard.”
Then the conversation turned again to the Bahá’í Teachings and she gave a greeting to be sent to Shoghi Effendi in Haifa. Later she mentioned an incident in Hamburg when she was en route to Iceland in the summer of 1933. As she passed through the street, a charming girl tossed a little note to her into the motor car. It was: "I am so happy to see you in Hamburg, because you are a Bahá’í.” Her Majesty remarked that they recognized a Bahá’í and this shows a spirit of unity in the Bahá’í Movement.
Her Majesty said to me, “In my heart I am entirely Bahá’í,” and she sent me this wonderful appreciation: “The Bahá’í Teaching brings peace to the soul and hope to the heart. To those in search of assurance the Words of the Father are as a fountain in the desert after long wandering.”
And now today, February 4, 1936, I have
just had another audience with Her Majesty
in Controceni Palace, in Bucharest. As I
was starting to walk up the wide ivory
toned stairs carpeted with blue Íránian rugs
to the third floor suites, at that very
moment over a radio came the rich strains of
the Wedding March from “Lohengrin,”
played by an orchestra. It seemed a symbol:
the union of spiritual forces of the East and
Europe! Again Queen Marie of Rumania
received me cordially in her softly lighted
library, for the hour was six o’clock. She
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was gowned in black
velvet and wore her
great strands of marvelous pearls. The fire
in the grate beamed a welcome with its
yellow-glowing fragrant pine boughs and
large bowls of yellow tulips adorned the
apartment.
What a memorable visit it was! She told me she has a friend in ‘Akká, Palestine, who knows Shoghi Effendi and this friend recently has sent her pictures of ‘Akká and Haifa; the two were playfellows when they were children and met in Malta. She also told me that when she was in London she had met a Bahá’í, Lady Blomfield, who had shown her the original Message that Bahá’u’lláh had sent to her Grandmother Queen Victoria in London. She asked the writer about the progress of the Bahá’í Movement especially in the Balkan countries.
“Since we met two years ago,” said Her Majesty, “so many sad events have happened! I look on with a great deal of sorrow at the way the different peoples seem to misunderstand one another; especially now that I have become very lonely in my home, I have all the more time to think over these problems, and I’m sometimes very sad that I can do so little. However, I know that the right spirit and the right thoughts go a long way towards that unity of hearts which I haven’t given up the hope to see before I pass on.”
She spoke, too, of several Bahá’í books, the depths of Íqán and especially of Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh which she said was a wonderful book! To quote her own words: "Even doubters would find a powerful strength in it, if they would read it alone and would give their souls time to expand.”
Her Majesty kindly promised to write for BAHÁ’Í WORLD, Volume VI, a special appreciation and to send it after four days.
I asked her if I could perhaps speak of the brooch which historically is precious to Bahá’ís, and she replied, “Yes, you may.” Once, and it was in 1928, Her dear Majesty had given the writer a gift, a lovely and rare brooch which had been a gift to the Queen from Her Royal Relatives in Russia some years ago. It was two little wings of wrought gold and silver, set with tiny diamond chips and joined together with one
A Floral Tribute to Her Majesty the Late Queen Marie of Roumania.
Offered by the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada on the occasion of the service held in Washington, D. C., July 25, 1938, to commemorate the first anniversary of her death.
large pearl. “Always you are giving gifts to others, and I am going to give you a gift from me,” said the Queen smiling, and she herself clasped it onto my dress. The wings and the pearl made it seem “Light-bearing,” Bahá’í! It was sent the same week to Chicago as a gift to the Bahá’í Temple, the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, and at the National Bahá’í Convention which was in session that spring, a demur was made—should a gift from the Queen be sold? Should it not be kept as a souvenir of the first Queen who arose to promote the Faith, of Bahá’u’lláh? —However, it was sold immediately and the money given to the Temple, for all Bahá’ís were giving to the utmost to forward this mighty structure, the first of its kind in the United States. Mr. Willard Hatch, a Bahá’í of Los Angeles, California, who bought the exquisite brooch, took it to Haifa, Palestine, in 1931 and placed it in the archives on Mt. Carmel where down the ages it will rest with the Bahá’í treasures.
Inadequate as is any one article to portray
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Her Majesty Queen Marie
of Rumania’s splendid spiritual attitude,
still these few
glimpses do show that she stands strong for
the highest Truth, and as an historical
record they will present a little of what the
first Queen did for the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
To His Excellency The Rumanian Minister Washington, D. C.
Your Excellency:
On behalf of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, flowers in memory of Her late Majesty Queen Marie of Rumania will be sent to Washington Cathedral for the memorial service to be held there next Monday afternoon.
Her Majesty’s acceptance of the principles of the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and her public statements regarding His Cause have endeared her for all time to the followers of the Bahá’í Movement the world around. It is with heartfelt sorrow and profound regret that the Bahá’ís have heard of Her Majesty’s death.
ASSEMBLY OF BAHÁ’Í OF
UNITED STATES AND CANADA(By) CHARLES MASON REMEY
2440 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington, D. C.
