January 6. On this date in 1932, Catherine Heward Huxtable, a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for the Gulf Islands and pioneer to Regina, Saskatchewan and St. Helena, was born.

 

January 6. On this date in 1932, Catherine Heward Huxtable, a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for the Gulf Islands and pioneer to Regina, Saskatchewan and St. Helena, was born.

Catherine Huxtable was born on January 6, 1932 at Charlwood House, Charlwood, Surrey, England, to Lt. Col. Stephen A. Heward and Mrs. Helen (Bury) Heward. Upon her family's return to Canada she entered Havergal College at the age of seven. Following an almost fatal attack of scarlet fever when she was ten years old, it was discovered that she suffered from muscular dystrophy of a rare type which indicated a rapid decline and a greatly shortened life span which would probably not reach twenty years. She was to be confined to a wheelchair for half her life. At sixteen her worsening condition made it impossible to continue formal schooling. Despite her physical limitations and waning strength Catherine developed into a self-reliant young woman of diversified interests. She attracted to her a widening circle of friends who accompanied her to concerts, ballets, theaters, art galleries, and lectures. Se became a gifted writer and an accomplished artist in needlepoint. In 1951 she and Clifford Huxtable embraced the Bahá’í faith. In 1955 they were married.

Catherine served on the Spiritual Assembly of Toronto with dedication and became an extremely effective and informed speaker. She had an unusual capacity for sharing the insights gathered from her intensive study of the Teachings. The intimate "fireside" meetings in her home with Catherine presiding as gracious hostess were a source of confirmation to many; cynicism, doubt and the qualified acceptance of the power of God receded in her presence, so marvelously did she exemplify the Message she presented.

A friend records: "The overpowering combination of Cathy's serenity and saintliness of spirit, her noble and radiance of character, and the sheer beauty of her physical person - a beauty at one time curiously both regal and winsome - served to almost blind one to her great humanness. Only after being with her did one reflect: she is a truly splendid human being, total and balanced and genuine. She lived to an unusual degree in a condition of consciousness o the presence of god, equally committed to the victory of the spirit and to the joy of a full human life. Perhaps this balance was the source of her power and tranquility. She seemed always to be simultaneously static and meditative, engaged in some higher communion, and soaring in an authoritative, graceful motion that the eye could hardly trace. Wherever she went she was described as a saint, a heroine and a true Bahá’í. She was perhaps never more saintly then when withstanding our fusty, needless solicitousness, the limitations we sought to impose on her Bahá’í service, our unconscious projection on her of both our hidden doubts about the assistance promised in the Cause and our desire to see fulfilled in her existence our own deepest spiritual aspirations; nor was she more heroic then when accosted by our need for vindication of the power of the Faith to raise a saint in our midst; nor more a true Bahá’í then when yielding to our efforts to come to her assistance with an empty cup, only to withdraw from her strengthened, renewed and with cup overflowing.

"One cannot imagine the countless subtle hurts and humiliations that arose from her physical condition nor measure the will she applied to overcoming them. Once I found her weeping in a brief and rare surrender to self-pity and rejection. her child had run to her for comfort and brushing the cold steel of her chair had turned away baffled and accepted solace from the housekeeper. Catherine asked for five minutes in which to pray and regain her composure, then invited me to introduce the friend I had brought to meet her. My companion, a cynical pragmatic businessman emerged from his meeting with Catherine with an altered attitude, a confirming experience which led him into the Faith. 'What an incredible power that woman has!' he commented. 'She tells me that there is a God, and I believe her. Furthermore I suspect that Catherine Huxtable must be one of God's favorite teddy bears!'"

The sensitive observer noting Catherine's special love for the pioneers and her frequent letters to those serving in distant areas would have known that inevitably she would pioneer. In response to the death of Shoghi Effendi, the Huxtables pioneered to Regina, Saskatchewan, to assist in rebuilding the Spiritual Assembly in 1957. That task successfully accomplished, the Huxtables founded the first Spiritual Assembly in the Gulf Islands, a virgin territory of the Ten Year Crusade, for which they became Knights of Bahá’u’lláh. It was there that they had their son, Gavin.

When the call for pioneers in the Nine Year Plan was raised in 1965, the Huxtables volunteered to settle in St. Helena, final prison and resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. Catherine confided to a friend on the eve of her departure for Africa: "I don't aspire to be a saint; I would rather be one of God's teddybears. I am really no different from anyone else. It is just that I know I shall have less time then others; I cannot be like the unwary bird Bahá’u’lláh speaks of in The Hidden Words. Only by centering myself in the Covenant of God can my life or death have any significance. If I have a private prayer, it's this: Let my life and death count in the Faith!"

On October 25, 1967, just nineteen months after arriving at St. Helena, Catherine died. "The end came suddenly after only one day of discomfort," Clifford wrote. "Her last words were an earnest but not anguished payer, 'I want to die.'"