Queen Marie and the Baha'i Faith

Abstract

This article focuses on the first monarch to embrace the Bahá’í Faith, Queen Marie of Romania. It sets out to convey the stature and the character of this remarkable woman, her unique position in the early twentieth century, and, above all, her position within the Bahá’í Faith. It also sets out to examine two issues. First, it is widely known that Queen Marie was a Bahá’í. Yet, a number of her own statements seem to contradict this affiliation and bring into question her conversion to the Bahá’í Faith. By examining her diaries and public statements, this work attempts to clarify the contradiction. The second issue concerns Queen Marie’s plan to visit the Bahá’í Centre in Haifa in 1929. Shoghi Effendi had made arrangements for a visit that never took place. It is well known that she reached Haifa in Palestine (Israel) on 30 March 1929, but failed to contact Shoghi Effendi or to visit the places she had deeply wished to visit. Information from her unpublished personal diaries sheds new light on her pilgrimage. In the process of exploring the above issues, what emerges is the friendship of Martha Root, an early Bahá’í teacher, from the moment Martha met the Queen in 1926. An integral part of that relationship were some deeply touching letters from Martha to Marie about the Bahá’í Faith. Excerpts from these letters are included in this article.