December 1. On this date in 1866, Marion Jack was born in Saint John, New Brunswick.

 

December 1. On this date in 1866, Marion Jack was born in Saint John, New Brunswick.

An early Canadian Bahá'í, she converted to the Bahá'í Faith in Paris, and went on to teach English to the family of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Akká for a short time. When 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited London in 1911, he gave a talk at her home, in High Street, Kensington. In 1931, she pioneered to Bulgaria, where she lived until her death in 1954.

On May 24, 1954, Shoghi Effendi wrote the European Teaching Committee that "every Bahá'í, and most particularly those who have left their homes and gone to serve in foreign fields, should know of, and turn their gaze to, Marion Jack."

1939. Every Bahá'í, Especially Those Who Leave Their Homes to Serve in Foreign Lands, Should Turn Their Gaze to Marion Jack

"For over thirty years, with an enlarged heart, and many other ailments, she remained at her post in Bulgaria. Never well-to-do, she often suffered actual poverty and want; want of heat, want of clothing, want of food, when her money failed to reach her because Bulgaria had come under the Soviet zone of influence. She was bombed, lost her possessions, she was evacuated, she lived in drafty, cold dormitories for many, many months in the country, she returned valiant to the capital of Bulgaria after the war, and continued, on foot, to carry out her teaching work.

"The Guardian himself urged her strongly, when the war first began to threaten to cut her off in Bulgaria, to go to Switzerland. She was a Canadian subject, and ran great risks by remaining, not to mention the danger and the privations of war. However, she begged the Guardian not to insist, and assured him her one desire was to remain with her spiritual children. This she did, up to the last breath of her glorious life. Her tomb will become a national shrine, immensely loved and revered, as the Faith rises in stature in that country.

"He thinks that every Bahá'í, and most particularly those who have left their homes and gone to serve in foreign fields, should know of, and turn their gaze to, Marion Jack."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the European Teaching Committee, May 24, 1954)