Brigitte Lundblade
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Brigitte Lundblade (January 21, 1923 - May 17, 2008, née Hasselblatt) was Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for the Shetland Islands and a pioneer in several other countries, most notably Estonia.
Brigitte Hasselblatt was born in Tallinn, Estonia into an ethnic German family. For many generations the men in the family had traditionally been pastors in the Lutheran Church and all four of her brothers also became pastors.
Together with her family Brigitte was evacuated from Estonia during the Second World War and following a period in Germany she ended up in England, where she became a Bahá’í at a summer school in 1950. In Brigitte's own words: "During their talk, I felt as if a beam of light had struck my heart and had torn away a veil. I only wished that they would stop talking. I thought: ‘I have to become a Bahá’í! I have to become a Bahá’í! I have searched for this all my life – I want to tell everyone!’"
In 1953 Brigitte settled in the Shetland Islands, a territory named by Shoghi Effendi in connection with the Ten Year Crusade, so becoming a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh. Over the next few years a small Bahá’í community formed in Lerwick, the capital. While on the islands Brigitte worked as a midwife and some of the children she helped deliver would later accept the Faith.
In 1956 Brigitte went on Pilgrimage and met Shoghi Effendi, who encouraged her to bring the Faith to her native Estonia. Because it was impossible to go to the Soviet Union at that time, Brigitte chose to pioneer to Finland in order to be as close to Estonia as possible.
While in Finland Brigitte married Milton Lundblade, an American Bahá’í of Swedish descent. In 1961 they pioneered again, this time to Denmark, but because Milton was unable to find work there they soon had to move to the United States. For the next several years Brigitte worked as a school nurse in California. Brigitte and Milton had two children.
After her children were grown and her husband had passed away, Brigitte moved back to Finland as a pioneer in 1984, still waiting for an opportunity to return to Estonia in accordance with the Guardian's wishes. Her chance finally came in 1988.
Although a handful of people in Estonia - mainly Esperantists - had become Bahá’ís even before Brigitte's arrival, her flat in Tallinn quickly became the center of Bahá’í activity in the country. For many years she hosted weekly firesides and later on children's classes and study circles. Thanks to her fluency in Estonian, Brigitte was able to communicate freely with local people and played a major role in the development of a Bahá’í literature in that language. Often referred to as the "Mother of the Estonian Bahá’í Community", Brigitte was also widely respected in interfaith and government circles. Her personal qualities and family background helped to win official recognition for the national community.
Brigitte was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baltic States in 1993 and remained a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Estonia after it was formed as a separate body in 1999. On the advice of the Universal House of Justice, she retired in 2006 after many years of service.
Brigitte devoted her final years to writing her memoirs with assistance from a friend, Susanne Pfaff-Grossman. "The Life of a Pioneer" was originally published in German and was then translated into English by Brigitte herself.
Brigitte passed away in May 2008 and is buried in her native Tallinn.
