Lua Getsinger

Louise Aurora Getsinger (1 November 1871 – 2 May 1916), known as Lua, was one of the first Western members of the Baháʼí Faith, recognized as joining the religion on May 21, 1897, just two years after Thornton Chase. head of the religion 1921–1957. Nevertheless, she faced trials of reputation among the Bahá'ís in America during a time when rumors arose if a woman traveled with a man other than her husband, which she did in promotional tours across America, into Canada and Mexico. Her husband grew doubtful, their relationship changed, and he sought a divorce. She was defended by the leadership of the religion and her reputation increased after her sudden death in Egypt.

A number of later leaders of the religion were directly affected by her, including members of the high office of the religion, the Hands of the Cause, Louis George Gregory, and John Henry Hyde Dunn, as well as May Maxwell, another prominent woman of the religion and mother of another Hand of the Cause Rúhíyyih Khánum, who had her own direct effect on Agnes Alexander, William Sutherland Maxwell, and Mason Remey and thus had an effect on the promulgation of the religion in America, (including across the color line,) England, France, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina, in addition to her own direct contact with thousands of people before the end of the first World War.

Biography Early life Hume area of 1856 map of Allegany County, New York, a couple decades before Lua was born there. Lua was the sixth of 10 children born to Ellen McBride and her husband Reuben D. Moore in Hume, New York, a rural small town located in western New York State's Allegany County, about 90 kilometers south of Lake Ontario. Reuben was born in Erie County and most of Lua's siblings were born in Wyoming County. The Moore-McBride family had been living in nearby Java as farmers. Java area of Wyoming County, New York, 1853, a couple decades before Lua's parents lived there. In 1872 the family moved to Mills Mills Rd north east of Hume in Allegany County just south of Wyoming County off of the Genesee River, and bought a farm of 150 acres in 1873. Siblings Alta and Alice were twins. Years later Lua described an experience of her youth to her friend May Bolles Maxwell of being baptized - dunked in water in a ritual - and expecting to see or feel a direct gift of the spirit from a new church in town and being disappointed. Kindle:656

Schools were founded across the county by 1825. Granger township to the east had one by 1819. Indeed Lua with her sisters has been identified in a newspaper clipping from July 1892 placing her arriving from Flint, Michigan, back to visit. Family oral history also had Lua attending the World Parliament of Religions of 1893 in Chicago during the World Columbian Exposition and, it is believed, would have heard of Bahá’u'lláh. and Lua may have done housekeeping for Thacher. and Thacher or others may have introduced the Bahá‘í Faith to Lua; however it came about, she joined a class on the religion led by Ibrahim Kheiralla, who had taught Thornton Chase, recognized as the first Bahá'í of the West. as others may well have as well. Attendees of these classes at the time were called 'truthseekers'.

Edward was not into religion but accepted an invitation from Thacher to come out to his farm and Lua was there too. Lua's brother William finished the religion class June 18.

Lua returned to Hume to enthusiastically tell her family about the new religion. Local newspapers noted Lula in town July 6, 1897, accompanied by an unknown lady friend, and William returned as well on July 9. It is known her mother and four of her siblings joined the religion quickly. In particular her mother Ellen asked an unidentified 'truthseeker' to transcribe 16 pages of its writings. After being joined by Edward they left Hume August 31, 1897, on their way to Ithaca, where Lua organized a study class. Edward himself also took a class in New York and finished it back on October 26, 1897. Lua also wrote of being lonesome with Edward away but filled with purpose from the new religion and excited to hear of the advancing work of the community in Chicago. He had been in San Francisco in February, and was visible again in later July. Hearst family accounts credit Edward seeing her and her not paying attention to other guests at a reception Phoebe's response was enthusiastic and she arranged for Lua to being a class which started at the Hacienda and then moved to an apartment of hers in downtown San Francisco. This along with other stresses caused her to decide to go on a trip to Paris, Egypt and up to Istanbul by the end of August. though it remains unclear if Lua learned of this and stopped for the funeral and see the family or if her travels left the messages behind by this point. Hearst’s train to New York left September 10 and arrived in New York September 15 following which she and some of the group spent a few days in DC. The Getsingers gained a passport the next day, and the group left on September 22. Lua had kept a journal given to her by Helen Goodall on September 13 and the group arrived in Paris on the 29th. Lua’s first words to May were "There is a Prisoner in ‘Akká who holds the key to Peace” and that was enough for May - “I believe, I believe” she said and fainted. Laura Barney, best known for later compiling the Baháʼí text Some Answered Questions from her interviews with Abdu'l-Bahá, met Lua in Paris though she converted through contact with Bolles later. over several weeks because of restricted living conditions. so arriving probably December 2. thumb Lua also communicates that it became apparent that Kheiralla’s teachings differed both in tone and extent from those of Abdu'l-Bahá. Letters from Persia and the West were translated, read, and sent on to the Bahá'ís from the other side. There were also recordings of Bahíyyih Khánum and pilgrims "singing newly composed American Baháʼí hymns" all of which have since been lost, and some copies of prayers, communes and selections from the scripture of the religion.

June 2 the Getsingers traveled back to Ithaca and the Moore family farm. Lua began to exchange frequent letters with Abdu'l-Bahá’s daughters and to travel for the interests of the religion. The Getsingers were part of gathering for the American Independence Day picnic in La Grange, Illinois, at which some 300 Other meetings were attempted to heal the breach including Karím and translators coming to Chicago, on money raised by Baháʼís in New York organized by Thornton Chase, but Kheiralla never attended the meetings and accusations began to multiply instead. Finally Karím left August 5, 1900, without a resolution.

Meanwhile Marion Jack encountered the religion in Paris in 1900 through Bolles

The second The second pilgrimage for the Getsingers came in the fall of 1900 leaving a couple weeks after Karím, and with the Dodge and Hoar families. and traveled through Paris in September during which time there was much discussion about reincarnation. Later in 1901 Abdu'l-Bahá sent Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl to correct the understandings in Paris. From Paris the families made their way towards Palestine. The Dodges were quarantined in Beirut and arrived in Haifa September 25.

The Getsingers gained much more information on the religion on the second pilgrimage compared to the first. However while early western believers conflated the stations of Jesus and Abdu'l-Bahá and showed extremes of reverence it also empowered women to flout social conventions easily but still follow Abdu'l-Bahá’s direction even over the objections of their husbands. The Getsingers were back in Paris in June 1901.

The public coverage of the split between those that sided with Abdu'l-Bahá like the developments at Greenacre, a spiritual retreat with then new interests in the religion, the MacNutts, Dodges, and Getsingers against Kheiralla continued. After second pilgrimage Getsingers went to California assisted by Hearst. After the first pilgrimage attempts at correspondence on behalf of Hearst by Lua were leaked naming her involvement in the religion at a time of rising considerations of her son’s political activities and so Hearst dismissed the Getsingers from their stay at her home in 1901. Newspapers noted in December that Lua already traveled twice to Acre and quotes Lua's letter of the first pilgrimage.

Extended pilgrimage and petitions The community progressed sharing copies of letters of and about Abdu'l-Bahá and the Baháʼí teachings. Lua's belief she had a mission to promulgate the religion was reinforced and Edward's belief was that he had a mission to connect science and religion. This did not lead to fruition. The next year, Abdu'l-Bahá saw the time, place, and person of Lua appropriate to the task.

Portrait of Muzaffar al-Din Shah Qajar by Kamal-ol-molk, 1902 On July 5, 1902, Lua got a passport in her own name in New York and lists various facts of her life - she was born in Hume, New York, had been maintained her official residence in Detroit the last 2 years, and the paper work was witnessed by Josephine C. Cowles of New York. Lua was then back in France before September 28. She was not immediately welcomed. A picture of Lua and associates was taken in Paris.

“…in the grand reception hall of the Elysee Palace hotel where the entire suite of one hundred and fifty Persians were awaiting His Majesty, this one American woman, the only woman in this large group of men, stepped forward and handed to His Majesty the petition she had faithfully written. Lua also delivered a forceful speech suggesting that such 'uncivilized' cruelty was shaming Persia, and that if the mullás examined the history of Islam, 'they would soon see that the shedding of blood is not a means of annulling, but rather the cause of promulgating every religious movement.' Lua then told the assembled men a heartrending story of a woman whose husband, brother and eleven year-old son were viciously killed by mobs, and when the woman 'throws herself upon their mangled corpses' she 'is beaten into insensibility'." Lua asked the Shah, "…is it justice on the part of your Majesty to allow such heinous crimes to go unpunished?" An original manuscript of this prayer, held in the Baháʼí archives, is dated 1905, but Lua's own copy bears the date March 28, 1903.

By May 28, 1903, Lua was back in Haifa - she wrote a letter to Dreyfus of observing the Ascension of Baháʼu'lláh holy day with Abdu'l-Bahá's family and describes the relationship of Baháʼu'lláh to Abdu'l-Bahá in her own words as one who “abdicated His Throne in favor of His dearest and Eldest Son". but it was a false alarm. Perhaps this was a garbled reference to the above events - of her losing her head as a metaphor her hearing of the plight of the Persian Baháʼís, "following in Abdu'l-Bahá's footsteps" in his sadness over the persecution of the Baháʼís. Lua again worked on a mission to present a petition in fall of 1903 sent to Teheran; in this effort she shares the story of the Varqá martyrdom.

The Washington, DC community, travels, and race Lua co-wrote notes of her pilgrimage which were published as Mercy and Justice April 27, 1904. Lua arrived in America July 19, 1904, on the SS Finland. Joseph and Pauline Hannen first heard Lua in person in August 1904 in New York at the farewell of Abu'l-Faḍl, who had been their teacher in the religion in Washington, DC. In February Thornton Chase commented about Lua in a letter, saying it was his impression that Lua had "changed greatly and for the better.… (seeming) older, and more quiet and reserve", was wearing her blue color-schemed clothing, and was studying Persian at a university. This may be the first mention of Lua's "blue costume". Since her youth Lua had tended to a flamboyant mode of dress while avoiding fashions of the day. Some pictures of her in clothing have been published. Still Lua could pass as a local Christian woman in the streets of Haifa at the time. Persian culture tended to not place Western women into the context of Eastern women but treated as a kind of “honorary male” who were then in a position to learn “a wide repertoire of more culturally sensitive performances of ʼwomanhoods' and or 'Bahaʼi womanhoods', used adaptively and strategically as they traveled throughout the world”. A newspaper article followed the next week too. Subsequent articles spread around the country began to include a drawing of her in her "blue costume".

The Getsingers lived with Helen Ellis Cole in New York before moving to DC in April, 1906. Following her interventions in diplomacy there were two letters from the Persian diplomatic legation in DC to her the spring of 1906 and then another in 1908. as well as speaking at the home of the Struven family that had had contact back before the first pilgrimage - and the community paid the fair for some Baháʼís of Baltimore to travel to DC to hear Lua talk there. Following that contact, African American Louis George Gregory’s first Baháʼí meeting was to hear Lua speak in a meeting room of the Corcoran Gallery of Art who addressed the history and persecution of Baháʼís in Persia. Only three came to that meeting - Gregory and two others, all black, though Pauline Knobloch Hannen and Lua were white ladies acting as host and speaker for the small meeting.

Lua also continued her travels reaching as far as Montreal by December 12, 1907. In early 1908 Lua accompanied Stanwood Cobb on his first pilgrimage to see Abdu'l-Bahá. Lua with a party of three then went on pilgrimage January, 1909, again including Stanwood Cobb this time coming down from his teaching position in Constantinople. In 1909 she was correspondence with Agnes Parsons writing from New York but not able to wait until March to see her.

Following the initiatives of reaching the black community and Gregory's involvement, a group of Baháʼís made a presentation to the DC black community forum, the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, with presenters Joseph Hannen, husband of Pauline, Howard MacNutt, and Lua, approaching mid-October 1909 and some of the coverage made it into the New York Age of national circulation. Indeed this turned into a series of Bethel meetings the next several weeks. There is a picture of the DC Baháʼí community with Edward holding up the sign of the "Greatest Name in 1909 from the back of the room. coming with Agnes Parsons and Dr. Fareed. following which Lua was a delegate to the national Baháʼí convention representing the DC community. Come June the Getsingers were visible in Baltimore, doing a series of meetings. Lua's mother Ellen had moved to Tennessee with her daughter in the Blakeley family, and Lua went to see her August. Gregory went on to be another prominent member of the religion and posthumously appointed a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi during his ministry as head of the religion.

Around the spring of 1911 Lua's youngest brother Elwyn died.

Lua was remembered in DC at meetings of the Baháʼís. Meanwhile Lua and Fareed went to Tijuana to give medical assistance to those wounded from a battle, Later Baháʼís of the area of Tijuana took note it was Lua who was the first to bring the religion there. In August Fareed was noted in newspaper coverage of their presence at a Long Beach "Spiritual Congress".

In September their talk for the religion back in Los Angeles was noted in the newspaper. In October Lua and Fareed were in meetings in San Francisco of which there was much coverage in the newspapers. Lua's talk December 17 in San Francisco is one of the few preserved. Meanwhile she spoke at a California club attended by John Hyde Dunn Dunn would also go on to be a prominent member of the religion and posthumously appointed a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi. Then Lua was joined in a talk by Thornton chase in San Francisco where she said:…we must all recognize the fact that God is one God, one Father, one Creator of us all, and that we are all now here, living in one home, members of one family, brothers and sisters. We do not realize this. Very few people on earth realize this great truth, this great fact. If we did, we would have peace. We would not be talking about it so much. We would have it. It would be an established fact. It would just be The sun does not have to declare itself over and over as a shining luminous body. It is. And could humanity come into the understanding that God is one, that this earth, this whole planet, is a home for His creatures, and that we are all now members of His family, brothers and sisters, why peace would be. It is just a lack of realization on our part… Later in April Lua had been to Napa with Helen Goodall. A golden shovel was given to Abdul-Bahá to open the ground but the ground was too hard. A pickaxe was borrowed and then Abdu'l-Bahá broke the ground. Corinne True, later appointed another Hand of the Cause, then asked that a woman have a role. Abdu'l-Bahá asked Fareed to urge Lua forward twice and it was she who then turned the first spade of dirt. True did it next and then followed representatives of races and nationalities. After arriving in New York on May 11 several ladies including Lua and Juliet Thompson worked preparing Abdu'l-Bahá's rented apartment and Lua was with Juliet there again on the 15th.

Lua was visible again a few days later in the delegation with Abdu'l-Bahá pictured attending the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, echoes of which appeared variously over the coming week or so in various states. While those echoes were spreading around, on May 19 Lua was with Abdu'l-Bahá at a church, A week later at a meeting with Lua, Maxwell and Thompson, Abdu'l-Bahá described their respective hearts as tender, kind, and boiling. The next day was the day Abdu'l-Bahá named Lua as the "Herald of the Covenant" after sitting for some time for a painting by Juliet Thompson.

On June 29 Lua sought an excuse with Juliet to see Abdu'l-Bahá then staying in Montclair. When Abdu'l-Bahá did come to San Francisco a few days later Lua had made arrangements for him to speak for a number of venues starting with Stanford University. A picture was taken October 12 of Abdu'l-Bahá with Lua at the edge during the visit to Goodall's home. Lua remained in California teaching various classes as Abdu'l-Bahá went back east and eventually left America. She was accompanied by the doctor's wife. On July 10 Lua was on the German SS Princess Irene coming from DC Lua begged Abdu'l-Bahá not to be sent with any man but her husband and hoped to be joined by Isabel Chamberlain though that did not work out. Hellen Goodall aided many of Lua’s travels and established a trust to aid the Getsingers in India administered by contacts in Egypt. Lua wrote back of Christian material being useless and proceeding on highlighting general principles and seeking a translator. He became “splendidly sympathetic” to Lua and was a point of reference to other Baháʼí contacts, and often calling her “St. Lua” even in the 1920s in India. Wax cylinders of Hindi renditions of Baháʼí scriputres were made but have since been lost. thumb Historical images of Haifa, 1918 Edward had been in America and returned to Haifa to provide money for food relief during the war before America's involvement but Abdu'l-Bahá had to refuse because of the high suspicion and threats in the area. A meeting had been held in Haifa seeking reconciliation between Edward and Lua. Edward filled for a divorce from Lua which was then published in the newspapers in late July, 1915, repeating into August. Edward was then asked about how this relief fund was dispersed rather than returned and became very upset over the demands asked of him from donars and continued to complain of the questioning for two years and about which “may have been the final blow which determined Edward to sever all ties with Lua" in the judgement of Lua's biographer. Her occupation was "Lecturer" and she intending to return to America on a scale of months vs years. Circa September 25 news of the filing for divorce reached her.

In a letter of the period Lua referred to this as a test which for her was the "last of the Dark Night for my soul" and speculating of a "last long journey". Communiques from the US Embassy in Egypt with her sister Hebe and, as named in the documentation, her husband Edward followed. She had two trunks of personal effects including clothing, letters, note books, and manuscripts and together with left over monies she had, doctor and funeral expenses were covered by friends. A quote reported to be put on her original gravestone was written by Abdu'l-Bahá: "Verily, verily, the maid-servant of God, Lua, while serving in the Path of God and being attracted to His Breaths, abandoned this world, soared towards the Supreme Concourse and attained to the countenance of her Lord in the Kingdom of Names” though this is only mentioned in a second hand letter and not verified.

A biographical review of Lua was published in Star of the West, mostly based on Edward’s positive comments, by the editors which was followed by a tribute from May Maxwell and she says: Modern scholarship on Lua continues seeing her as a Táhirih model of a crusader, "not afraid to speak out in the face of the approbation of family, neighbours, and authority figures." Maxwell was also a direct influence on several more people including Hands of the Cause Agnes Alexander, William Sutherland Maxwell, and Mason Remey, that was published in November 1920: "Yet, praise be to God! not even a single soul among the Friends wavered. The violators in America do nothing but flatter, seduce and show a love that is insincere. Consider what they did to poor Lua and how unfaithful they have been to her!"

The Bosch family, long close friends of Lua, visited her gravesite towards the end of January, 1922. and later a revised mausoleum was raised and shared with Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, her designated father figure in the community.

On March 29, 1954, Shoghi Effendi, as then head of the religion, mentioned Lua in a short list of eight women “in the Abha Kingdom” who had laid down their lives far from home.

Successive biographical works have been published since. In 1971 a 4 page article on Lua was published in Bahá'í News. In 1973 a “charming yet slender” book partially about Lua was published co-written by Hand of the Cause William Sears. A review of her meeting with the Shah in Paris was published in 1974 written by Hand of the Cause Abu'l-Qásim Faizi. A biographical collection of letters to and from Lua was published in 1997. Lua was one of the subjects of some plays. One was produced in the context of the second Baháʼí World Congress held in 1992. Another was produced as part of a 1998 thesis in Canadian Studies mentioning her in the context of two Baháʼí women speaking in spring 1910. Lua's life was portrayed in an article of a children's magazine of the religion in 2016 still available online.

Lua was among the prominent women of the religion in biographies like Martha Root, Marion Jack and others. Like Root, Lua was remarked on for her extensive traveling, public speaking, and carrying on diplomatic initiatives.

Promoting the historical accomplishments of women has often highlighted a common sense of suffering being a significant motivator for the women but Selena M. Crosson points out for Baháʼí women it has been “their high levels of bonding and intimacy seem to be based primarily on their adherence to their new faith, common millennial ideals, and shared religious language” and can be compared with other communities of women. Baháʼí women’s activities as non-professionalized missionaries (true in general for men and women,) were atypical compared to other advances of women: that Baháʼí women would exemplify new social expectations for women, including paid employment and philanthropy, while avoiding the political route to advancement. See also Baháʼí Faith and gender equality.

Lua is among women seen as ones "who dedicated their lives to service of the Faith, mainly outside of the domestic realm, emerged as heroic Baháʼí paradigms. This positioned these women within the globalizing Baháʼí Faith as attainable modern western female religious exemplars, reinforcing women’s leadership roles.” "This inspiring picture of Lua Getsinger as a warrior woman works in the realm of heroic Baháʼí myth-building on several levels. First, for Baháʼís, Lua presents a clear parallel to Táhiríh."

"In the Baháʼí community, the heroic myths of May Maxwell, Martha Root, Lua Getsinger and their associates were very modern: these are ordinary, flawed, frail or timid women who are transformed by extraordinary circumstances, and their own mettle. They providentially discover a new, nearly unknown millennial faith, which they believe holds in its grasp the fate of the world, and become its champions. Through a series of tests, they exhibit, by overcoming various challenges, a previously unknown strength of character. Their stories, as heroic myths are meant to, inspire other initiates to higher devotion and increased efforts to accomplish their herculean task, building a new global World Order. This quest helps them to move beyond personal and gender barriers to experience a metamorphosis in their personal and collective identities, discovering new capacities and competencies. In the early Baháʼí narratives, these women are often attributed some special qualities, mainly a 'searching' soul and an intuitive knowledge of and sensitivity to the spiritual realm, often revealed through dreams and visions." "As with Lua Getsinger, in most accounts of May Maxwell, a dichotomy of strength and fragility exists; her ephemeral presence and physical weakness mask a spiritually robust woman with great internal fortitude. The mix of “feminine” delicacy and spiritual potency makes her mythology malleable. She was able to be many things to many people.”

Another motif among the early Baháʼís was being a sense of being “chosen” and tested: a quote reported from the Getsingers and in Edward's pilgrim notes published in Star of the West in 1915 says “In this Day every one must be tested, as the time of the 'chosen ones' to prove their worth is indeed very short…. All who fail to attain to the standard through the tests are relegated to the 'many who are called.'" But this was not an individual salvation being envisioned but an enterprise on a planetary scale.

"In fulfillment of May’s prophecy, Lua Getsinger has arguably become the foremost popular female exemplar in the western Baháʼí community, after Táhiríh herself.” Lua is among a list of graves of women believers were enjoined to visit. "The development of these more culturally accessible western female models conformed to modernist and feminist mythological patterns of heroization. Average, even weak or flawed women (i.e. not men) such as the ailing May Maxwell, the 'timid' Agnes Alexander, and the frumpy, poor, ill Martha Root could, after being providentially 'chosen,' and divinely assisted by the transformative power of the 'new revelation,' arise to save the world. Within the Baháʼí community, this band of women became the première exponents and western exemplars of the Faith. These western female religious paradigms, who exhibited many of the qualities identified with feminist ideals of the self-reliant, independent, self-actualizing, 'modern' woman, acted as inspirational models for their peers and succeeding generations."

"However, like a saint, Lua did not succumb (in community memory, at least) to death. By 1924, she was already 'immortalized' within the Baháʼí community, in part for her prolific spiritual 'mothering'. Mariam Haney attributes Lua’s greatness to sacrifice, writing, '…for among the world's great women there are none who should come nearer receiving honor and distinction than those who in truth share the suffering and sorrows of their fellow human beings, and who offer the sacrifice of their own life that others may live.' Haney interprets Lua’s 'martyrdom' as self-chosen so 'that others may live,' echoing Biblical allusions to sacrifice ransoming spiritual 'life.' In this way, 'martyrdom' becomes thoroughly hybridized as both a physical and a daily lived spiritual condition. By equating Lua Getsinger with Persian martyrs, Haney reverses the Orientalism that Edward said claims portrays eastern men as weak and feminised. In this case, male 'Orientals' set the standards for heroism, and western females, by being compared to them, symbolically acquired stereotypically masculinised attributes like bravery, independence, fortitude and loyalty.”

Biographer Kathryn Jewett Hogenson says:"Indeed, Lua’s contributions to the establishment of the Faith cannot be measured. True, she was impulsive and mischievous, and she never let her head overrule her heart; but her passion and unwavering love for the Faith, coupled with her relentless desire to serve her Lord, overshadowed her more earthly failings. Many were the believers who called her their ‘spiritual motherʼ." Kindle:6335