Marion Jack (1866-1954)
Her courageous exploits in service to the Baha'i Faith inspired Shoghi Effendi to describe her as an "immortal heroine" and a "shining example to present and future generations." (The Baha'i World 1976-1979)
Marion Elizabeth Jack, circa 1885
Born in 1866, into a prominent family in St. John, New
Brunswick, Canada, Marion Jack attended school in London and Paris, where she
encountered and immediately embraced the Baha'i Faith. From that day forward
she was a pioneer; one who breaks new ground, one who paves the way for those
who are to follow.
She spent some time in the Holy Land, and while there taught
English to 'Abdu'l-Baha's grandchildren. In 1914 she returned to Canada and was
among the first to respond to the call of the Divine Plan, pioneering to
Alaska, and teaching in Toronto, Montreal, and elsewhere.
In 1930, she returned to Haifa, and from there went to a
pioneer post in Sofia, Bulgaria. As the Second World War approached, Shoghi
Effendi suggested that she pioneer to another country, but she pleaded to be
allowed to remain in her adopted land, with her "spiritual children".
With his blessings she did so, and died at her post in 1954.
The life Marion Jack chose to lead was not an easy one.
"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 ... 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." (Canadian Baha'i News, April, 1955)
Upon her death, Shoghi Effendi wrote that she was "a
shining example to pioneers of present and future generations." (from a
cablegram from Shoghi Effendi upon the death of Marion Jack) It was also his
wish that "every Baha'i 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." (letter written on behalf of the Guardian to the European
Teaching Committee, May 24, 1954)
Baha’i Canada, vol. 2, no. 5, October 1979)
