January 21. On this date in 1923, Brigitte Hasselblatt, who would pioneer to Sweden, Denmark and Estonia and be named a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for the Shetland Islands, was born.

 

January 21. On this date in 1923, Brigitte Hasselblatt, who would pioneer to Sweden, Denmark and Estonia and be named a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for the Shetland Islands, was born.

Brigitte Hasselblatt was born on January 21, 1923, into a Baltic German family in Tallinn, Estonia. During World War II, the Hasselblatt family was evacuated to Germany, and after the war Brigitte moved to England, where she became a Bahá’í at a summer school in 1950.

In 1953 Brigitte settled in the Shetland Islands, a territory named by Shoghi Effendi in connection with the Ten Year Crusade, and in doing so became a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh.

In 1956 Brigitte went on Pilgrimage and met Shoghi Effendi, who told her to introduce the Bahá’ís Faith to Estonia. Because it was impossible to go to the Soviet Union at that time, Brigitte chose to pioneer to Finland instead.

While in Finland Brigitte married Milton Lundblade, an American Bahá’í of Swedish descent. In 1961 they pioneered again, this time to Denmark, where there son Laurence was born. Because Milton was unable to find work there they soon had to move to the United States. For the next several years Brigitte worked as a school nurse in California. In 1963, their daughter Luise was born in Downey, California.

After her children were grown and her husband had died, Brigitte moved back to Finland as a pioneer in 1984, still waiting for an opportunity to return to Estonia in accordance with Shoghi Effendi's wishes. Her chance finally came in 1988.

Although a handful of people, predominantly Esperantists, had become Bahá’ís in Estonia prior to Brigitte's arrival, her flat in Tallinn quickly became the center of Bahá’í activity in the country. She was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baltic States in 1993 and remained a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Estonia after it was formed as a separate body in 1999.

On the advice of the Universal House of Justice, she retired in 2006 after many years of service.

Brigitte devoted her final years to writing her memoirs with assistance from a friend, Susanne Pfaff-Grossman. "The Life of a Pioneer" was originally published in German and was then translated into English by Brigitte herself.

Brigitte died on May 17, 2008 and is buried in her native Tallinn.