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"lighten and uplift
them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses"
-Baha'u'llah
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Island of
faith holds jubilee
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PALERMO,
SICILY, Italy, 23 October 2003 (BWNS)
-- It all began with the
decisions of one woman in Massachusetts and a
family in Michigan.
When
they decided to take the teachings of the Baha'i
Faith to Sicily 50 years ago, they initiated the
next phase in the religious history of this
Mediterranean island.
Centuries
ago it had been an outpost of Islam, but it was
a tight-knit community with a strong allegiance
to the Catholic Church when the first Baha'is
arrived in 1953 as part of a ten-year plan to
take the teachings of the Faith around the
world. |
Youth celebrate the golden anniversary of the
arrival of the Baha'i Faith in Sicily.
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From 19 to
21 September 2003, as the Baha'is of Sicily celebrated
the golden jubilee of the arrival of the Faith on the
their island, they could rejoice that Sicily now has 11
Local Spiritual Assemblies and that Baha'is now live in
44 localities there.
In 1953,
however, there were no Baha'is in Sicily.
Arriving
there was something of a shock for Emma Rice, who, at
55, had left her comfortable family estate in Hamilton,
Massachusetts, in the United States.
"Her
first impressions of Sicily were horrifying, for she was
confronted with poverty, unsanitary conditions,
illiteracy and what she felt to be cruelty previously
unknown to her," her 1985 obituary by Anne Gordon
Atkinson reveals.
But she
found strength in prayer, and quickly made friends. In
fact, just after Mrs. Rice's arrival in Sicily, a
chambermaid in her hotel in Taormina, caught sight of a
picture of 'Abdu'l-Baha in Mrs. Rice's hotel room, and
within two months both the maid and the hotel's
laundress had become Baha'is.
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Mrs.
Rice plunged herself into Sicilian life. She
learned the local songs and dances, and the
language. She went to festivals, christenings,
graduations, and pageants.
A
week after Mrs. Rice came to Sicily, Baha'is from
Michigan, Stanley and Florence Bagley, arrived
with their three teenage children.
They
met a local person who introduced them into
Palermo society and soon gained local friends.
For
their services in Sicily, the members of the
Bagley family were designated by Shoghi Effendi as
"Knights of Baha'u'llah," as was Mrs.
Rice. |
Emma Mandell Rice (1898-1985) in 1978. |
At the
golden jubilee celebrations held in Campofelice di
Roccella near Palermo, there were 300 guests from 15
countries.
Guests of
honor included a former member of the Universal House of
Justice, Ali Nakhjavani, who spoke about the Ten-Year
Plan, and his wife, Violette Nakhjavani, who gave some
moving recollections about Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani, the
widow of Shoghi Effendi.
The jubilee
was an occasion to recall how the community grew over
the years.
Stanley and Florence Bagley. |
Through
the activities of the Baha'i pioneers and other
arrivals, and with visits by Hand of the Cause Ugo
Giachery (1896-1989), the Faith grew. The first
Local Spiritual Assembly formed in 1957.
Dr.
Giachery was born in Palermo, Sicily, but had
later moved to the United States where, in the
1920s, he met his wife, Angeline, and became a
Baha'i. In 1947, Dr. and Mrs. Giachery settled in
Italy as pioneers of the Faith.
Dr.
Giachery went on to win renown as an able
assistant of Shoghi Effendi in the projects to
build the superstructure of the Shrine of the Bab,
and the International Archives Building, both on
Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel. |
He provided
innumerable services to the Faith. In August 1968, he
was the representative of the Universal House of Justice
at a conference attended by some 3,000 Baha'is in
Palermo. The conference commemorated the centenary of
Baha'u'llah's arrival in the Holy Land.
At the
jubilee, Italian Baha'i Mario Piarulli, 82, shared with
participants his memories of Dr. Giachery.
"Dr.
Giachery and Mrs. Giachery were like my father and
mother. They were the first Baha'is I met," Mr.
Piarulli said.
"Whatever
I know, concerning the meaning of life, the way life
should be conducted, I learned from them," he said.
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Mr.
Piarulli, 82, has recently finished writing a
book, "The Ambassadors of Baha'u'llah" (Gli
Ambasciatori di Baha'u'llah), which he dedicated
to the memory of Dr. Giachery.
Another
author present was Rino Cardone, a journalist, who
launched his recently published book "The
Countless Pearls of Sicily" (La Sicilia dalle
Infinite Perle), in which he describes the history
of the Baha'i Faith in Sicily.
A
highlight of the jubilee was a teleconference
between the participants and Hand of Cause Ali
Muhammad Varqa, who was in Haifa, Israel.
Dr.
Varqa, who been a regular visitor to Sicily, also
sent a special letter for the occasion, which read
in part:
"Following
the 50 years of hard effort and activities, you
have been successful in creating a community,
which could be presented as a model of integrity,
harmony, and fellowship that generates the sweet
fragrance of divine love in all parts of the
islands of the Mediterranean Sea." |
Dr. Ugo Giachery and his wife, Angeline, early
1970s. (Photo by Phillip Hinton) |
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| Published in Bahá'í
World News Service |
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