May 2. On this date in 1916, Lua Getsinger died unexpectedly at the age of forty-three of heart failure while in Egypt. A prominent Disciple of `Abdu'l-Bahá, he also titled her "Herald of the Covenant" and "Mother Teacher of the West."

 

May 2. On this date in 1916, Lua Getsinger died unexpectedly at the age of forty-three of heart failure while in Egypt. 

A prominent Disciple of `Abdu'l-Bahá, he also titled her "Herald of the Covenant" and "Mother Teacher of the West."

Lua Getsinger became a Bahá'í in 1897.

In 1898, Lua Getsinger undertook a Bahá'í pilgrimage to Palestine to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá with other American pilgrims, including Ibrahim George Kheiralla, Phoebe Hearst, and May Boles.

It was during this trip, in Akka, that Kheiralla witnessed firsthand the conflict between 'Abdu'l-Bahá and his brothers, leading him, upon his return to America in 1899, to form the "Society of Behaists" which would later be led by Shua Ullah Behai and to author a book, Beha'u'llah, wherein he states his belief that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was equal in rank to his brothers Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí, Díyá'u'lláh, and Badi'u'lláh.
Ultimately, in the conflict between 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Mírzá Muhammad `Alí, Kheiralla sided with the latter for which he was declared a Covenant-breaker.

Phoebe Hearst was an early Bahá'í, a wealthy philanthropist, the wife of Senator George Hearst, and the mother of publisher William Randolph Hearst. She later became estranged from the Bahá'í Faith due to being extorted for money by other Bahá'ís.

May Boles would wed William Sutherland Maxwell on May 8, 1902, in London. They met while William was studying architecture in Paris and May was the sister of one of his classmates. The couple were the parents of Mary Sutherland Maxwell, the future Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum, wife of Shoghi Effendi, who was born to them on August 8, 1910. They also hosted 'Abdu'l-Bahá in their Montreal on September 2, 1912.

On June 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave a talk in New York about Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet of the Branch, declaring himself the "Centre of the Covenant," New York the "City of the Covenant," and Lua Getsinger the "Herald of the Covenant."