Angeline Giachery
Angeline Giachery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Sweden |
| Died | April 23, 1980 Monaco |
| ABM | Europe 1954 - 1964 |
| Spouse(s) | Ugo Giachery, m. 1926 |
Angeline Giachery (189? - April 23, 1980) was a Swedish Bahá’í who served as an Auxiliary Board member for Europe.
Biography[edit]
Giachery was born in Sweden in the late 1890's. She completed her education in Sweden and England,[1] and travelled throughout Europe in her youth.[2] In the early 1920's she visited friends in Boston in the United States where she was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith and she joined the religion and settled in the United States at some point.[2]
While in New York City Angeline met Ugo Giachery and they married in New York City in February, 1926. Ugo wrote to Shoghi Effendi after their marriage and became a Bahá’í. She frequently attended deepening classes throughout the 1920's and 1930's enhancing her knowledge of the religion and she also used trips to Europe as opportunities to travel teach. At the end of the Second World War Shoghi Effendi requested that the American Bahá’í community send pioneers to Europe and the Giachery's pioneered to Rome, Italy, in early 1947.[2]
Giachery became extremely active in the wider community of Rome volunteering for an association which assisted orphans and people displaced by the war, working with cultural groups, art circles, embassies, and the Dante Alighieri Society, and using her newfound connections to proclaim the Bahá’í Faith. Throught the Giachery's efforts the Local Spiritual Assembly of Rome was established in 1948 and Shoghi Effendi had a photograph of the Assembly framed and placed in the Mansion of Bahjí. As a result of increased interest in the Bahá’í Faith Giachery wrote an introductory pamphlet on the religion in Italian and had John Esslemont's book Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era translated into Italian in the late 1940's and she was appointed chairman of the Bahá’í Italian Publishing Committee when it was formed.[2] From 1948 up until 1957 she assisted her husband in securing marble for the construction of the superstructure of the Shrine of the Báb.[3]
Giachery frequently traveled across the Italian peninsula to assist the fledgling Bahá’í communities forming into the 1950's and in 1954 she was appointed to the newly formed Auxiliary Board for Europe which was responsible for overseeing the protection and propagation of the Bahá’í Faith in Europe.[3] She met Shoghi Effendi while on pilgrimage in 1954.[3] She was made responsible for Italy, Corsica, Malta, Rhodes, Greece, Monaco, and Switzerland and oversaw the establishment of sixteen Local Spiritual Assemblies. She served as Board member until 1964 when her husband, who had been appointed as a Hand of the Cause for Europe in 1951, was reassigned to serve as a Hand of the Cause for the Americas.[3]
In 1964 the Giachery's moved to La Jolla, California, and Giachery immediately began assisting with intensive teaching activities hosting several firesides a week and travelling throughout Ariona, Oregon, Washington, Yukon in Canaa, and Alaska.[3] In 1969 she and her husband returned to Europe moving to Place des Moulins in Monaco,[4] but continued to travel internationally extensively to support Bahá’í communities across the whole world. In 1976 Gichery attended an Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Helsinki at which Angeline shared a plan to teach the Bahá’í Faith in the Arctic territories from Finland to Alaska and after the conference she toured the area visiting Finland, Sweden, and Norway. While travelling from Finland she was involved in a serious accident which caused a decline in her health, however she travelled again to Finland and Sweden in 1977.[3]
In her final months Giachery became frail and was unable to travel and she passed away in Monaco in 1980.[3]
References[edit]
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 717. View as PDF.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 718. View as PDF.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 719. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1970). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 466, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
