• Abdu’l-bahá’s
visit to Montreal.
The Maxwell home, designed by William Sutherland Maxwell and
completed in 1911, was the centre not only for the Bahá'í Friends
but for all the pilgrims who travelled that way.
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Abdu’l-bahá
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May Maxwell had laid the foundation of the Cause in Canada. Her
devoted and selfless services acted as a strong magnet to draw
Abdu’l-bahá to Montreal. Of her, Abdu’l-bahá
said :
«May Maxwell is really a Bahá'í. She breathed
no breath and uttered no word save in service to the Cause of God.
Whosoever meets her feels from her association the susceptibilities
of the Kingdom. Her company uplifts and develops the soul.»
When Abdu’l-bahá arrived in Montreal on August
30, 1912, William Sutherland Maxwell was waiting on the train
platform
to ask Him most humbly to honor his home by being his guest.
Abdu’l-bahá agreed
and stayed in the Maxwell home for three days. For the remainder
of His stay in montreal He rented rooms in the Windsor Hotel.
• The Significance
of This Shrine.
Even though Abdu’l-bahá stayed in other homes in
Europe and America, the Maxwell home in montreal is the only
place officially
designated a Shrine. Shoghi Effendi, in a June 1953 letter to the
Canadian National Spiritual Assembly, stated
«...the Maxwell home in montreal (...) should be viewed in the
nature of a national Shrine because of it's association with the
beloved Master, during His visit to Montreal.»
This sacred spot is unique in the world, since it is the only
Bahá'í Shrine outside the Holy Land and those places
in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey where the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh
have resided or sojourned.
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LSA of Montreal - © Bahá'í World
Centre
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The Bahá'í Community of Canada dates from 1898 when
Edith Magee of London, Ontario became the first Bahá'í in
Canada. In 1902 May and William Sutherland Maxwell established
a Bahá'í group in Montreal, a firm basis for much
of the early development of the Bahá'í Community
of Canada. May Maxwell came to be regarded as the "mother
of the Bahá'í Community of Canada." because
of her historic role in those early years.
In September 1912, `Abdu'l-Bahá, son of Bahá'u'lláh,
the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, visited Canada.
He addressed large public gatherings and was interviewed by the
Montreal press on subjects that included economic justice and
world peace.
The Bahá'í community attracted a number of adherents
who contributed much to Canadian society as well as the Bahá'í International
Community. William Sutherland Maxwell was the architect of the
Chateau Frontenac tower in Québec City and the Saskatchewan
Legislative Buildings. He designed the Bahá'í shrine
on Mt. Carmel at the Bahá'í World Centre in Israel.
French-Canadian Jean Louis Bourgeois, designed the North American
Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette, a northern suburb
of Chicago. Friedrich Schopflocher, a prominent Montreal industrialist,
and John Robarts, a well-known Toronto business executive, were
among those who helped to develop the Bahá'í Community
of Canada in the middle decades of the century.
In 1937 Mary Maxwell, daughter of May and William Sutherland
Maxwell, married the then Head of the Bahá'í Faith, Shoghi
Effendi, in Haifa, Israel, and undertook extensive travels throughout
the world. Known by her title, 'Amatu'l-Bahá Ruhiyyih Khanum,
Montreal's Mary Maxwell became perhaps the most widely recognized
Canadian Bahá'í in the world.
In 1948 the national governing body, the National Spiritual
Assembly of Canada, was established. The Canadian Bahá'í National
Centre are today situated on the northern edge of Toronto. In 1949,
an Act of the Canadian Parliament incorporated the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada.
Since its inception the Bahá'í Community 
of Canada
has continued to attract people from all walks of Canadian society,
and today numbers more than 25,000 members living in every province
and territory of Canada, from the large metropolitan cities to
remote villages in Canada's north. Bahá'ís are doing
all they can to contribute to the quality of life in their local
communities. The Bahá'í Community of Canada has
developed collaborative relationships with Canadian governments
and organizations
of civil society, and has sponsored a number of social and economic
development projects in different countries around the world.
