Marcia Steward de Matamores
From Bahaikipedia
Marcia Steward de Matamores (1904 - 1966) was a pioneer and Knight of Bahá'u'lláh, named for pioneering to the Marshall Islands.
Marcia Steward was born in Pasadena, California in 1904 to Dr. and Mrs. Rudolph Shiffman. She attended Girls' Collegiate School in Los Angeles and spent much of her childhood at her grandparents' home with its huge white columns, its great hall and double grand staircase and landscaped grounds dotted with greenhouses and gaebos which spread down to the very foot of the canyon. She graduated in late 1920 and made her debut to a waiting society at Midwick Country Club, followed by a fashionable tour of Europe with an aunt. She was one of that large group of American exiles to Paris, where she lived for a good part o the 'twenties.
Marcia embraced the Bahá'í Faith in 1938 and was eager to pioneer before the conclusion of the first Seven Year Plan (1937-1944) of Shoghi Effendi. She sailed from New Orleans, en route to Santiago de Chile, where she lived in a pension in order to learn the language. Within a year she was lecturing in Spanish on the Bahá'í Faith in the University of Santiago[1]. Marcia had launched upon a brilliant series of services to the Cause which the Guardian described, in his many letters to her, as "magnificent", "exemplary", "meritorious", and "unforgettable".
Determined to establish her residence in Latin America, Marcia purchased a rather elaborate hacienda on the outskirts of Santiago, entertaining the press and those in education and diplomatic circles. She wrote many articles for the press. Latin countries do not pay for editorial articles, as the prestige that comes with their publication is deemed to be coin of the realm. When her funds were exhausted is not known. There are some who feel that her real pioneering began only after her personal fortune was expended. Marcia lavished her wealth, her abundant energy and eventually her health in the course of her service to the beloved Guardian in establishing the Faith in Latin America.
With the remnants of her means and the assistance of a friend or two, Marcia purchased a property in the mountains of Honduras, near Tegucigalpa. She named it "Karbilá". It was her dream that it eventually become a hospice for pioneers and a summer school for nearby Bahá'í communities. She acquired it for her beloved, the Guardia, and she was alone there for most of her remaining years. An aged horse was her only tie with the outside world during the part of each year when abundant rains washed out the bridges and roads. She went cold and hungry in order to maintain "Karbilá". During these lonely years Marcia's companionship was in a copious exchange of letters with Shoghi Effendi. That beautiful relationship is glimpsed in the following few extracts from the letters Marcia received:
"January 23, 1944 - I am deeply touched y, and feel profoundly grateful for, your immediate and exemplary response to my request. The Bahá'ís... will be thrilled to hear of the historic enterprise on which you have embarked. I have already informed the friends in Iraq and Persia, and sent them the envelope bearing the stamp and name of that far-away city (Punta Arenas), as a clear evidence of the high accomplishments o the American Believers. Persevere in your meritorious labors, however great the sacrifices required. The Beloved is well pleased with you and is watching over you. Be happy."
Marcia passed away in August 1966. Mary Beal Edison who wrote this piece and was published in The Bahá'í World states: I picture her, as a schoolgirl, climbing the roftops of His Kingdom and, in quiet moments, gazing up, up into the Heavens of His Knowledge. Francis Thompson's The Hound of Heaven was her favorite poem. Borrowing some of its phrasing: God-intoxicated, Marcia will ever hear His Breath behind her, His Footfall ahead.
Note The Bahá'í World - 1963-1968 page 305
[edit] References
- The Universal House of Justice [1974]. The Bahá'í World - An International Record Vol XIV 1963-1968. Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England: Broadwater Press Limited.
