In Memoriam 1992-1997/Léa Nys

LEA NYS

1910—1992

C“ )< 7 e profoundly lament the passing

of dearly loved Léa Nys, valiant handmaiden Baha’u’llah, outstanding promoter His Faith." These were the opening words addressed to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Belgium by the Universal House ofjustice after the passing of Léa Nys on July 28, 1992.

This “valiant handmaiden of Bahá’u’lláh” was born Léa Maria Decelle on December 27, 1910, in Brussels, Belgium. Her parents, Antoine Decelle and Marie Spanoghe, opened her heart to the notion

LE4 Nys

[Page 6]6 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

of human brotherhood. They were ardent socialists willing to stand up and defend the weak and the oppressed. They were also artists who taught her beauty.

In addition to the general education that she received at the Lycée Fernand Cocq, Léa went to the Ecole des BeauxArts where she studied painting, drawing, interior design, and advertisement. She also learned music at different academies. In all of her studies there had been no place for religion, and it was with her encounter with the revelation of Baha’u’llah that Le’a’s aspirations found their first real meaning.

In September 1928 Léa married Jean Eugene Nys. The couple shared many ideas that prepared them for the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. With their two Children, Frédéric and Francine, they formed a united family, Which could have lived a cozy life if in 1946 the second Seven Year Plan launched by Shoghi Effendi had not brought American Bahá’í pioneers4 to settle in Brussels.

What attracted Lea was the spirit of sacrifice of these pioneers, their simplicity, their availability, their hospitality, in spite of the little means they had. Their ideal was hers. What she did not understand was the religious character of this ideal because God was, for her, a name that did not have much meaning. When she heard that her pioneer friends had not obtained a renewal of their residency permit, her generous heart and her natural impetuosity made her rush to the offices of the Foreign Affairs Minister. Suddenly realizing Where she was and the strange reason for her coming, the thought came to her mind, “My God, make this work.” Unconsciously perhaps, she had invoked God in whom she did not believe.

4 It is likely that the pioneers were John and Eunice

Shurcliff (March 12, 1947), with whom Léa had contact.

And her actions succeeded; the permit was renewed for a year. When she returned to her home, she had a vision that she was not the one who had accomplished the feat, that she had only been an instrument of a force in which she started to believe with full energy and toward which she was going to turn her whole life. She rushed to her friends and asked them, “Do you think you can accept me as I am?”

Until that time the Bahá’í community had not been established in Belgium. The few Belgians who had knowledge of the Faith had had little or no contact with each other between the two world wars. Le'a Nys was the first to declare during the Plan; she was the beginning of the Belgian community. As the Universal House of Justice noted, she was “the first to accept the Message of Baha’u’llah on the soil of Belgium.” She accepted the Message with a fervor that nothing could fluster on September 30, 1947.

From that date teaching the Faith of Baha’u’llah was her first concern. She attended every meeting and all activities, giving her unrestricted support to the pioneers. The activities bore fruit; between January and April 1948 seven Belgian citizens declared, and the first Local Assembly was elected in Brussels in April. Later that year seven other Belgians declared, so that the Bahá’í community numbered fifteen at the end of1948, in addition to the pioneers.

In 1949 Le’a experienced the greatest joy. Her husband, Jean Nys, accepted the Faith in January, and her two children declared at the second Bahá’í European Conference that was held in Brussels in August.

These annual Bahá’í conferences were for Léa events of first importance. She represented Belgium at the first conference in Geneva in 1948, and she attended those in Copenhagen and The Hague. Returning

from the Third Intercontinental Teaching

[Page 7]IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 7

Conference in Stockholm in 1953, she and her husband and daughter, Francine, suffered a terrible automobile accident from which they miraculously escaped.

Bahá’í literature in French was lacking at that time—a serious handicap for teaching. Léa dedicated much of her energy to the translation of the Sacred Texts, such as prayers, into French. When the European Teaching Committee created a committee for the publication and distribution of Bahá’í literature in French, Lea and her husband served on it, and the exemplary contribution of all the members enabled Brussels to be chosen by the Guardian as the seat of Maison d’e’ditions baha’ies—the Bahá’í Publishing Trust of Belgium.

In 1950 a closer collaboration was established between the three Benelux countries.S First a committee was created to which Léa was called to serve. In 1957 the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Benelux countries was formed, on which she served, often as its secretary, until 1962 when the first National Spiritual Assembly of Belgium was elected. As a member and secretary of that institution, she went to Haifa in 1963 to participate in the election of the first Universal House of Justice. During that same year a special privilege was given to her. With another Belgian believer, Elsa De Koninck, she was given permission to go on pilgrimage to Iran, visiting Tihran, Iṣfahán, and firm.

Jean passed away in 1962, and Léa’s Children were now living their own lives. She had but few ties, and the whole world seemed to be calling her. She was appointed an Auxiliary Board member in 1965 but later wished to serve beyond the borders of Belgium. In 1968 she was released from this service so that she could dedicate more time to teaching trips. The list of countries

5 Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

she visited is long and includes more than sixty francophone islands scattered across the globe. Everywhere that she went, she would radiate a natural ease in meeting with the poorest and the richest and in proclaiming the Faith through the media. She would leave behind many people who would declare their Faith in Baha’u’llah. Nothing would stop her, neither fear, nor precarious situations in remote villages. She was happy with simple comforts and would share life with the most humble of people, and she was equally at home in more sophisticated environments. She met with mayors and ministers, tribal heads and heads of state, including His Highness Maliatoa Tanumafili II ofWestern Samoa, King Baudouin of Belgium, General Gnassingbé Eyadema, President of Togo, President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin, and President Mancham of the Seychelles.

A more detailed biography of Léa Nys will, no doubt, be written to more adequately render the scope of her services for the Cause. Her life had a befitting coronation—a reward offered by Baha’u’llah. When the Belgian delegation was constituted to attend the commemoration of the Centenary of the Ascension of Baha’u’llah in May 1992, it was inconceivable that Le’a Nys not be a part of it. This was a feast for her. With each step she took in the gardens of Haifa, she was recognized and celebrated. Many delegations had one or two people who had met her during one of her many trips. Lea was very tired, but each day she was very alert and enthusiastic. She came back from Haifa with many plans in mind, but a few months later she was hospitalized and did not survive long after an operation. She was eighty—one. Her memory will remain linked for evermore to the history of the Bahá’í Faith in Belgium and to the history of the many countries she visited. On July 30, 1992, a befitting

[Page 8]8 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

tribute and call to remembrance was offered by the Universal House ofjustice:

We profoundly lament the passing of dearly loved Lea Nys, valiant handmaiden Bahá’u’lláh, outstanding promoter His Faith. The first to accept the Message of Bahá’u’lláh 0n the soil of Belgium, she, from that moment in September 1947, unstintingly devoted her highly meritorious endeavours to the promotion of that Message and the upbuilding of the Bahá’í community. Whether as member of the first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Brussels, as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, as a participant in the first election of the Universal House ofjustice, as a member of the Auxiliary Board, as official representative of the Bahá’í International Community, as a translator of Bahá’í literature into French, as a Victorious travelling teacher to innumerable countries in North and South America and the Antilles, to the islands of the Pacific and Indian Ocean, to east and west Africa, she has conveyed the divine summons to high and low alike, and raised aloft the banner of the oneness ofmankind. The record of her services is an imperishahle adornment of the annals of the Belgian Bahá’í community. We request you convey our warmest sympathy to the members of her family, and to hold memorial meetings in her honour throughout Belgium. We shall pray at the Sacred Threshold for the progress of her radiant soul

in the Abhá Kingdom.

Adaptedfiom a translation Of¢ tribute composed in French by Lam's Hénuzet