Elizabeth Hopper
From Bahaikipedia
Elizabeth G. Hopper (April 8, 1883 - May 3, 1967) was a pioneer and Knight of Bahá'u'lláh, named for pioneering to the Madeira Islands.
Miss Hopper was born in Hume, Allegheny County, New York. She was an ambitious and spirited woman for her period. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Cornell University, and entered the field of library science, serving for some time as senior librarian for an international agency for the United States.
Her interest in education and new ideas led her to the Bahá'í Faith. She became a Bahá'í during the prime of her life, and worked for the Faith with intensity and devotion. She was a member of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Washington, D.C. for more then twenty years, serving it as secretary and on local and national Bahá'í committees involved with teaching and publication.
Fragile in appearance, gentile in manner and yet possessed of tremendous will and a capacity for generosity and deep loyalty to the Faith and the friends she loved, Elizabeth entered the pioneering service during her late years. After years of service in her professional field, she had retired (in 1952) secure and established in her comfortable apartment in Washington, DC. However, in 1953 the stirring appeals of the beloved Guardian for pioneers to take the Faith to the virgin areas of the world had become increasingly urgent, and were directed to the friends of all ages and backgrounds. In the sensitive heart of Elizabeth Hopper there was an irresistible prompting that bade her arise and respond to the Guardian's appeal. Although she was entering her seventies she heeded this inner call and changed the whole course of her life. She offered to go as a pioner settler to the virgin area of the Madeira Islands. Such was her determination that by September 1953 she had given up her apartment, packed her belongings and set forth for her goal. Joining her in this pioneer venture was another younger Bahá'í, Miss Ada Schott, who volunteered to go that Madeira would have a pioneer team to teach the Faith and establish a new community.
On September 20, 1953, Elizabeth and Ada landed in Funchal, Madira's chief port and city, and cabled the news of their arrival. Their names were added to the World Crusade map and they were assured that they brought joy to the beloved Guardian, to the National Assembly of the United States and to the Africa Committee which supervised the pioneering efforts in the islands o the cost of Africa. The early months of that first year were mercifully pleasant for the two pioneers. They made friends and were courteously received and assisted by the people and the officials of that charming island.
By 1956 after three years of ardent prayer, patiently cultivated contacts and innumerable firesides, they were at last able to report the declaration of three new Bahá'ís in Funchal. The joy o this hard-won achievement brought new problems. They were required to leave the island temporarily before their permanent residence visas could be obtained. Then personal circumstances made it necessary for Miss Schott to return to the United States. This meant that Elizabeth was alone. She was seventy-six years of age at that time, feeling the inevitable handicaps of age, subject to bouts of discouragement, and yet impelled to continue the work of deepening, strengthening and teaching new believers and contacts. She appealed for help from additional settlers and through visitors from the accessible Bahá'í communities. There was an encouraging trickle of visitors who came and stayed for a time and added much happiness and help through their presence. She mentioned them all so lovingly: Mrs. Sara Kenny and her mother, Mrs. Ella Dunffield, Mrs. Peggy True, Miss Trudy Eisenberg, Miss Katherine Meyer, Miss Elise Austin, Mr. and Mrs. Valine from the Canaries, Mrs. Elizabeth Stamp, Mr. Missaghieh, and others. The friends tried to help by writing to her of tourists and visitors they knew who would come to the island, but to her great dismay no permanent settler could b found to come and stay.
During the period from 1956 to 1961 when Elizabeth was the only resident pioneer, her letters and reports to the Untied States Africa Committee unfold a moving account of the problems and situations which many pioneers must face. They are worthy of mention and reflection since we who view the pioneers at a distance many sometimes miss the significance and impact of the challenges they encounter. when the progress of the teaching work is slow and the area inhospitable, the pioneer must constantly struggle against discouragement and loneliness. Elizabeth ought this battle alone. There was also the constant strain of communication in a language which she could not master. There were subtle barriers with which cultural differences can impair understanding and confidence. Elizabeth grieved deeply over the "spiritual drop-outs" she encountered when she had worked so hard to give a redeeming message. She also had to deal with the conflicts and confusion which can result from situations where actions and attitudes of the believers fail to uphold the moral standards and spiritual responsibilities of the Bahá'í Faith.
Only once, during this lonely period, did Elizabeth look back in anguish. In a letter to a dear friend she wrote of her loneliness and despair and wondered whether another place might have yielded better results. But in the same letter her strength of spirit was expressed for she corrected herself, writing, "...and then I have to remember that Madeira is in the Divine Plan and the Guardian wanted an Assembly there."
In this period of tests two of her most wonderful Bahá'í experiences occurred. She attended the Most Great Jubilee in London and also received permission to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. How happy these two confirming experiences made her and how much she learned from seeing the deotion of the friends who serve at the World Centre.
In 1961 a new Bahá'í pioneer arrived to spend six months. Elizabeth warmly welcome and praised Mr. Joseph Kubik who came and helped with the Bahá'í community responsibilities. Then came a new Bahá'í family from the Canaries. There was great happiness and activity for several months, and then again Elizabeth was alone.
In 1963, at the age of eighty, Elizabeth, still alone and with her hearing growing steadily worse, she was urged by friends to return to the United States. She had the courage to reply, "No, dears, I do not want o come back regardless of how difficult things are becoming." Her greatest solace was reflection on the beloved Guardian's appreciation of steadfastness in the believers, and how reluctant he was to remove from his Crusade map the name of an area shown as settled. She knew that Maderia would always have a Bahá'í identification if she remained and preserved in that difficult pioneering post.
Great happiness came to Elizabeth in 1964. She felt near the end of her time. A Bahá'í came to be with her, Mrs. Isabel Horton, who stayed with her until her end, giving her the assurance she needed that her lifelong accumulation of Bahá'í literature and archives materials would be safely preserved. She passed away serene in the knowledge that she had been faithful to her pioneer trust, and that her weary body would rest in that island she had chosen. Elizabeth must have met that radiant "Messenger of Joy" confident of the promise of Bahá'u'lláh:
| “ | They that have forsaken their country for the purpose of teaching Our Cause - these shall the Faithful Spirit strengthen through its power... By My Life! No act, however great, can compare with it, except such deeds as have been ordained by God, the All-Powerful, the Most Mighty. Such a service is, indeed, the prince of all goodly deeds, and the ornament of every goodly act. | ” |
Madeira is indeed illumined by the memory of this loyal pioneer. The Universal House of Justice in recognition of her self-sacrifice cabled the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States on May 5, 1967:
| “ | PLEASE ASSURE FRIENDS PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS SOUL ELIZABETH HOPPER KNIGHT OF BAHAULLAH OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE DEVOTION STEADFASTNESS | ” |
From a letter written by H. Elise Austin
[edit] References
- The Universal House of Justice [1974]. The Bahá'í World - An International Record Vol XIV 1963-1968 - From a letter written by H. Elise Austin. Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England: Broadwater Press Limited.
