In Memoriam 1992-1997/Alexis Gilbert Robert

ALEXIS GILBERT ROBERT

1922—1995

DEEPLY GRIEVED PASSING DEVOTED SERVANT BLESSED BEAUTY GILBERT ROBERT. HIS VALIANT SERVICES FAITH IN MADAGASCAR, IN FRANCE AND IN REUNION IN PROMOTION TEACHING WORK AND IN VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS FAITH, NOTABLY HIS MEMBERSHIP CONTINENTAL BOARD COUNSELLORS AFRICA, UNFORGETTABLE. ADVISING NATIONAL ASSEMBLY UGANDA HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERING HIS

HONOURIN HOUSEWORSHIP KAMPALA, AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES INDIAN OCEAN HOLD BEFITTING GATHERINGS THEIR COMMUNITIES. CONVEY SYMPATHY DEAR MEMBERS HIS FAMILY, ASSURANCE LOVING PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS LUMINOUS SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.

Universal House ofjustice April 12, 1995

Gilbert, poet of the light, was born in Hell—Bourg, Réunion Island, on March 12, 1922. He studied in Madagascar and on Réunion Island, and at about the age of fourteen he was revolted and cruelly disillusioned by his professor who was in holy orders, and he subsequently lost his faith in the Catholicism in which he was raised.

At the declaration of the Second World War in 1939, he left Réunion and returned to Madagascar. In 1942 he enlisted in the Free French Forces and was posted to Indochina (Vietnam) in 1945. He became very ill. On his hospital bed he plunged into a study of the Indian, Khmer, Chan Chan, and Islamic civilizations. The horrors of the war had made him an atheist. Returning to Madagascar in 1948, shortly after the rebellion of the Malagasy, he was suicidal.

He met Daisy whom he married in 1949. The birth of his first son reawakened in him haunting memories of the war. His happiness was tainted by the image of a little Vietnamese girl of six, who raised her arms before him when he entered her hut, submachine gun in his hands.

Gilbert then began to study all religions, comparing them and searching for a universal moral teaching which could save humanity. One day, while he was admiring the beauty of nature, he said, “God, if

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You exist, show me the way which leads to peace.” At the time he frequented the Theosophists’ meetings on weekends. A young Malagasy man arrived one Sunday and said to the group that there was a woman who was talking of a new religion and that they must meet her. It seemed this religion was called “Batoula.” Gilbert had not encountered this religion in his studies and declared that this name meant nothing to him at all and that he did not want to waste his time. The young man persisted, and the group of Theosophists decided to arrange a meeting.

Mrs. Meherangiz Munsiff, a Bahá’í pioneer, had been teaching the Cause of Baha’u’llah since her arrival in Madagascar in April 1953. No one seemed to be interested in what she was proclaiming, and she wrote to Shoghi Effendi about her failure. His reply gave her hope. The Guardian asked her to be patient, “They are coming,” he wrote.

Gilbert’s first meeting with Mrs. Munsiff took place on July 25, 1953, the

THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

day on which she had received the letter from Haifa. She was privately convinced that Gilbert would become a Bahá’í.

Gilbert was touched by her personality and her eloquence and simplicity. Her words enthralled him. He was amazed to discover the Message of Baha’u’llah. The group of Theosophists was overwhelmed with astonishment and admiration as they listened to the reading of a Bahá’í brochure, “Vets un monde uni” (Toward a United World). Gilbert returned home with growing enthusiasm and told his wife. Assiduously he attended Mrs. Munsifi’s classes for some weeks.

Then one day, September 23, 1953, he decided that he was not going to listen to her any more, because, he said, this person thinks that I will become Bahá’í, and I, myself, have no intention at all of becoming one. It so happened that owing to some problems, Mrs. Munsiff’s hosts could no longer offer her accommodation, and she would have to go to a hotel. On the same day that he had decided not to see her again, Gilbert oHered her hospitality in his house. The saintly and active life of Mrs. Munsiff touched his heart and that of Daisy.

One morning while he was tying his necktie, he listened to the prayers that Mrs. Munsiff was saying, and he was seized by a terrible anguish. At that moment he declared his belief in Baha’u’llah. Daisy did as well, and on December 27, 1953, they became the first Bahá’ís of the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Following the departure oers. Munsiff on January 18, 1954, Gilbert, who had been appointed director of a large store—a job which permitted him to travel often by plane—began to contact the Malagasy and the French in the capital and the surrounding towns and villages and teach them. The first Local Spiritual Assembly of Tananarive

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(Antananarivo) was formed on April 21, 1953, and Gilbert was elected chairman. He was appointed a member of the Auxiliary Board for Propagation, serving from 1957 to 1964. He traveled during all his free moments and vacations, maintaining regular contact with the believers of Madagascar‘ the Comoros, Reunion, and Mauritius. It often happened that during his teaching trips in Madagascar, he slept on a mat on the bare earth.

The declining political climate in Madagascar obliged him to take his family to France in 1964. Gilbert never knew how to rest. After arriving in France he was elected a member of the National Spiritual Assembly there, and he served on it for eleven years. He made teaching trips to Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. He also took up studies of the human body and of the medicinal properties of plants, passed his thesis, and received a doctorate in naturopathy in 1977. From 1986 to 1988 he was an Auxiliary Board member in France.

In November 1988 he left France for Reunion Island to enjoy his retirement and to work on his writing. He wrote poetry, Children’s stories, and articles on nutrition and herbal medicine.

Appointed a Counsellor for Africa in October of the following year, he packed his suitcase again and traveled to several countries, sharing his joy in being Bahá’í. He enabled the friends to realize the importance of being Bahá’ís. “Throughout the world,” he would say, “there are many problems; the suffering of humanity has reached an unthinkable level, and every time the Bahá’ís do their best to put into practice the Teachings of Baha’u’llah, and each believer applies His laws and principles, then, by the example they give, the new race of men will be visible and real.”

He begged the friends to study the writings,

to deepen themselves, to pray, to set an example, and to do all in their power to become true Bahá’í’s.

After a serious illness Gilbert Robert left this earthly world on April 11, 1995, having Bahá’u’lláh in his heart until his last breath.

Gilbert often said, “If every human being could make the star which he has in his heart shine, all these small lights when together would make a wonderful sun oflight, ofbeauty, ofself—forgetfulness, so that each and every one could live in harmony.”

From a translation ofa memarz'al artirle written in French