February 4. On this date in 1974, Charles Mason Remey died. Charles Mason Remey was an early and active Bahá'í who, along with Howard C. Struven, became the first Bahá'ís to make a complete circuit of the world. Mason Remey would later become a Hand of the Cause of God, the president of the International Bahá'í Council, and after Shoghi Effendi's death, a claimant to the office of Guardian. An architect, he designed the Ugandan and Australian Baháʼí Temples. Upon the request of Shoghi Effendi, he also provided designs for a Baháʼí House of Worship in Tehran, for Haifa, and the Shrine of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, however only the Haifa temple was approved before the death of Shoghi Effendi.

 

February 4. On this date in 1974, Charles Mason Remey died.  Charles Mason Remey was an early and active Bahá'í who, along with Howard C. Struven, became the first Bahá'ís to make a complete circuit of the world. Mason Remey would later become a Hand of the Cause of God, the president of the International Bahá'í Council, and after Shoghi Effendi's death, a claimant to the office of Guardian. An architect, he designed the Ugandan and Australian Baháʼí Temples. Upon the request of Shoghi Effendi, he also provided designs for a Baháʼí House of Worship in Tehran, for Haifa, and the Shrine of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, however only the Haifa temple was approved before the death of Shoghi Effendi.

Mason Remey based his claim to be the second Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith on the idea that by appointing him as President of the International Bahá'í Council, the embryonic form of the Universal House of Justice which would be led by the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi had in fact implicitly named him as the second Guardian. Mason Remey's claim was largely rejected with several notable exceptions, including five members of the National Spiritual Assembly of France led by Joel Marangella. The remaining 26 Hands of the Cause unanimously declared Remey and whoever followed him Covenant-breakers.