Charles Mason Remey

Mason Remey
Born	May 15, 1874 Burlington, Iowa, USA.
Died	February 4, 1974 Florence, Italy.
NSA member	Bahá’í Temple Unity 1909 - 1910 1911 - 1912 1918 - 1920 1921 - 1924
IBC member	1951 - 1959
Custodian	1957 - 1959
Title(s)	Hand of the Cause Holy Land 1951 - 1960

Charles Mason Remey (May 15, 1874 - February 4, 1974) was an American Bahá’í who served the early Bahá’í community of America in several administrative capacities, visited Bahá’í communities across the world, and was ultimately appointed a Hand of the Cause by the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi. After the Guardian passed he was elected as one of nine Custodians to oversee the administration of the international Bahá’í community.

A year after retiring from serving as a Custodian he claimed to be the second Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, despite previously having signed statements confirming that Shoghi Effendi had not appointed a successor which was a requirement placed on there being any successor to the Guardianship in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. The Custodians informed the community that Mason’s claim had no basis, and that he could no longer be considered a Hand of the Cause until he retracted it, but Remey persisted in his claim, and after several months of consultation the Hands of the Cause made the decision to declare him a Covenant-Breaker. The majority of the Bahá’í community ignored his claim, and the small group of people who followed him began to splinter into different groups even before Remey passed.

Biography

Early Life

Remey was born in 1874 to Rear Admiral George Collier and Mary Josepheine Mason Remey. He studied architecture at Cornell University from 1893 to 1896, also taking a course on Buddhism, and at the Cole des Arts in Paris from 1896 to 1903. He was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith by May Bolles in Paris in 1899 and became the third Bahá’í in Paris on December 31 that year.

In April 1900 Persian Bahá’í ‘Abdu’l-Karim-i-Tihrani visited Paris and in the early summer of 1901 Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl visited educating the Paris Bahá’ís, including Remey, on the Faith. In February 1901 Remey went on pilgrimage and met ‘Abdu’l-Baha.

Development of the American Bahá’í community

In 1903 Remey returned to America settling in Washington, D.C. and lectured at George Washington University briefly but as his parents were wealthy he never needed full-time employment and he used his free time to write Bahá’í introductory pamphlets which were among the first in America. In June 1906 he encouraged the Washington Bahá’ís to organize an administrative body based on a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Baha and the following year a ‘Working Committee’ was elected which was the precursor to the Local Spiritual Assembly with Remey serving as a member. Also from 1906 to 1911 he traveled across the United States to teach the Faith, and in 1907 and 1908 he undertook teaching tours of Europe. In 1908 he also visited Turkestan and Iran with Sydney Sprague during which he arranged for American and Persian Bahá’í women to be in correspondence and he encouraged American Bahá’í women to visit Iran to serve as physicians, nurses, and teachers. In 1907, 1908, and 1909 he also visited the Holy Land on pilgrimage.

Remey on pilgrimage in 1901, standing at back left.

In 1909 Remey was elected to the Bahá’í Temple Unity which was the first national Bahá’í administrative body in the United States and he served on it intermittently into the 1920’s. In July 1909 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá suggested to Juliet Thompson that she marry Mason stating that He felt it would be a good union for the Cause, but leaving the decision to her. She agreed to the marriage in August and they became engaged. In November 1909 Remey and Howard Struven embarked on the most extensive teaching trip at the time, departing San Francisco and visiting Hawaii, Japan, Shanghai, Singapore, Burma, India, and Palestine, returning to America in June 1910. Juliet broke off their engagement in 1911 as she was conflicted by her love for the controversial clergyman Percy Grant. In 1912 when ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was in New York Juliet told Him that she was ready to marry Mason if He wished it, but ʻAbdu'l-Bahá told her He did not and she and Remey avoided each other after this.

In 1914 Remey visited Europe to teach for nine months with George O. Latimer and they sent a cable to the 1914 Convention of the Bahá’í Temple Unity held in Chicago from Paris. George noted that despite the onset of WWI the largest attendance for Bahá'í meetings in Europe were in Germany. They also visited Holland. After touring Europe they visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the Holy Land in October 1914, travelling via Egypt and Syria. In 1916 he and George Latimer spent six months living in Honolulu to teach.

During the first World War the American Bahá’ís were unable to directly correspond with ‘Abdu’l-Baha, and some Bahá’ís began to try and incorporate their own ideas into the Faith, particularly in Chicago where a W. W. Harmon founded a ‘Reading Room’ group and incorporated many occult elements, and his group eventually renamed itself a Bahá’í Assembly after criticizing the Chicago House of Spirituality (the precursor to the Local Assembly) and claiming that it had lost its authority. In 1917 Mason Remey chaired a Committee which examined the case and ruled that the Reading Room was in the wrong due to denying that ‘Abdu’l-Baha was the Center of the Covenant, making occult-based claims of authority, and actively soliciting money. Some felt that the Committee had acted too harshly and Remey wrote a report on the matter, and several essays on the importance of the Covenant in response. In 1918 he wrote additional warnings of what he felt were examples of Covenant-breaking but the majority of the community did not feel his concerns were well founded which resulted in Remey feeling alienated from the community.

The end of WWI allowed Remey to travel abroad to teach the Faith again and he made an international teaching trip in 1919 and he went on pilgrimage again in 1921. From 1921 to 1923 he served on the Star of the West committee.

Service to the Guardian

Portrait of Remey.

In 1922, the year after the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Shoghi Effendi, the newly appointed Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, summoned a group of prominent Bahá’ís to the Holy Land for consultation including Mason. At first Remey thought that his invitation was a trick and had to receive a cable confirming it came from the Guardian before departing America. He arrived in the Holy Land on March 10, 1922, and was presented with a copy of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha by the Guardian and spent three days visiting Bahji, Akka, and the Shrine of the Bab, with the Guardian and some other pilgrims. Shoghi Effendi encouraged Remey to move past the events of 1918 stressing that with the exception of those deemed Covenant-breakers by ‘Abdu’l-Baha there should be unity within the community. They also discussed plans for a Temple on Mount Carmel and visited the plains between Haifa in ‘Akka to identify a site which would be appropriate for a Shrine of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. After this pilgrimage Remey would not return to the Holy Land until 1950.

In 1931 Remey married Gertrude Heim Klemm. She was the widow of Colonel Karl D. Klemm who had committed suicide and she attempted suicide twice after marrying Remey before succeeding with a pistol wound to the head in 1932. In 1934 the National Spiritual Assembly appointed him as Chairman of a History Committee, and he published a document revisiting the events of 1917 and 1918 criticizing people who had disagreed with him by name. In 1939 he began construction of the ‘Remeum’, an ambitious family mausoleum which was never completed, and due to persistent vandalization it was destroyed in 1973 by the Church on whose land it was constructed. He was appointed to the Regional Teaching Committee for Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia as of 1939.

In the 1940’s Remey began travel teaching again, touring the southern United States in 1943 and 1944, the northeast of the United States in 1945, Latin America in 1945 and 1946, the midwest United States in 1946, the American south, Latin America, and Europe in 1947, and Europe again in 1948 and 1949.

Remey speaking at New Delhi Conference, 1953.

In 1950 Remey was summoned to the Holy Land by Shoghi Effendi and in 1951 he was appointed to the International Baha’i Council as President and he was also appointed as a Hand of the Cause of God assigned to the Holy Land. Shoghi Effendi noted the office appointments of the Council were a temporary measure to be succeeded by elected individuals, and the Council did not act as a consultative body with members receiving direct instructions from the Guardian with Ruhiyyih Khanum acting as his liaison. As President of the body Remey was responsible for consulting with local authorities to help develop the World Centre on behalf of the Guardian, and while in the Holy Land he also produced architectural designs for various buildings for the Guardian, and would occasionally act as a guide for pilgrims. In 1953 Remey departed the Holy Land to attend the Intercontinental Conferences called by the Guardian to launch the Ten Year Crusade attending the Conferences in Chicago, Kampala, and Stockholm before officially representing the Guardian at the New Delhi Conference. After the New Delhi Conference he visited Bahá’í communities across India with Horace Holley.

By 1957 Remey’s hearing had deteriorated to the point he required a hearing aid which he reportedly would turn off, and Florence Mayberry recalled seeing the Guardian shout when talking about the Hands protecting the Faith at a dinner with the pilgrims as Remey was not listening to him. Remey visited Wilmette in 1957, and as Amelia Collins was also in the city Shoghi Effendi asked her to accompany Remey when he was with any Bahá’ís.

Custodianship

On November 4, 1957, Shoghi Effendi passed away. On November 15 Ruhiyyih Khanum, Remey, Amelia Collins, Ugo Giachery, and Leroy Ioas arrived in Haifa following the funeral of the Guardian, visited his apartment, and sealed his safe and desk. On November 19 a larger delegation revisited the office, unsealing the desk and safe and searching the contents, and the members of the delegation including Remey signed a statement that no Will and Testament was found.

Remey (second from right) with Hands at Chicago Conference, 1958.

The Hands of the Cause called a Conclave to consult on the future of the community, and on November 25, 1957, the entire body, including Remey, signed a statement that no successor had been appointed to Shoghi Effendi and that they would assume their responsibility as Chief Stewards of the Faith. The Hands also elected nine Hands, including Remey, to serve as Custodians who were to act as Head of the Faith until the Universal House of Justice was established. In March 1958 Remey attended the Intercontinental Conference in Sydney, Australia, one of four held to commemorate the mid-point of the Ten Year Crusade, as the representative of the Guardian (having been designated to do so before Shoghi Effendi’s passing), and he also attended the Chicago Intercontinental Conference in May. At the second Conclave of the Hands of the Cause in November 1958 Remey demanded that the Guardianship be continued.

As of January 1959 Remey was suffering from severe arthritis but continued to serve as Custodian. At the third Conclave of the Hands in November 1959 the Hands made the decision to make the International Baha’i Council an elected body to prepare for the establishment of the Universal House of Justice. Remey refused to sign the joint statement announcing this, resigned as Custodian, and departed the Holy Land for Washington.

Breaking the Covenant

In April 1960 Remey announced that he was claiming to be the Guardian sending his claims to National Spiritual Assemblies, in contradiction of several statements he had previously signed, and the requirements in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha that the Guardian explicitly appoint his successor and that they be descended from Baha’u’llah. On April 30 the Custodians sent a cable attributing his claim to a profound emotional disturbance. On May 10 the Hands of the Cause announced that Mason Remey was no longer a Hand of the Cause, and would not be able to be recognised as such until abandoning his claim to be Guardian.

The Hands of the Cause consulted for a few months on Remey’s claim as they felt there were no explicit instructions on how to handle defection by a Hand of the Cause, but came to the conclusion that as he had broken the Covenant they had the authority to name him a Covenant-breaker, announcing the decision to the Bahá’í World on July 26, 1960. Their correspondence on the topic was published in the book ‘’Ministry of the Custodians’’ edited by Ruhiyyih Khanum. The vast majority of the Bahá’í world had rejected Remey’s claim, with the most notable exception being several members of the National Spiritual Assembly of France which was dissolved.

As of 1961 Remey had reportedly settled in Italy, and he spent most of the remainder of his life in Florence, appointing a young man named Giuseppe Pepe as a secretary and later legally adopting him. In December 1961 he sent a sealed envelope to Joel Marangella appointing him his successor.

Some of his supporters continued to send large amounts of correspondence to Bahá’í Institutions into 1962, and in April and May of 1963 Remey submitted his claims to the Government of Israel in an attempt to be recognized as Shoghi Effendi’s successor. He also instructed that his followers found National Assemblies in the United States and Pakistan, and the United States ‘Assembly’ filed a lawsuit against the American Bahá’ís to attempt to gain legal rights to all Bahá’í properties. In 1964 he founded a body he called the International Bahá’í Council, appointing Marangella as President.

Remey's legal cases failed with his group being legally forbidden from referring to themselves as Bahá’ís, and he instructed his Assemblies to disband in 1966, and also disbanded his International Bahá’í Council in 1966 demanding Marangella turn all records over to him. He appointed Donald Harvey as his successor in 1967 and complained that his followers were reporting that he was losing his mind. In 1968 he appointed five elders to assist Harvey intending to appoint a total of twenty-four elders however he dissolved the body before completing the appointments.

Marangella claimed to be ‘Guardian’ in 1969 and described Remey as being senile since 1964 and Remey’s followers splintered into several small groups. A follower named Rex King visited Remey in Italy as he desired a position of leadership with his followers in the United States which resulted in Remey calling him Satan in a letter in 1969. Around 1969 Remey began denouncing Shoghi Effendi calling himself the first Guardian and stating that the Bahá’í Faith should not be organized and that the administration should be dismantled.

Remey passed away in 1974 and Giuseppe organized his burial without religious rites in Florence with none of his followers attending his funeral.

Legacy

Before breaking the Covenant Remey achieved several great services for the Faith, the most enduring of which are the buildings he designed which are the International Archives Building, the Sydney and Kampala Houses of Worship, and the House of Worship which is to be constructed on Mount Carmel, as his design was approved by Shoghi Effendi. His picture is also displayed in the former Pilgrim House near the Shrine of the Bab with portraits of the other Hands of the Cause. Alí Nakhjavání has stated that while he broke the Covenant historical events can not be changed.

The Remeyites had already split before Remey’s passing, and continued to splinter afterwards. Marangella called his group the ‘Orthodox Bahá’í Faith’, a follower named John Carre later claimed to be a Manifestation of God, Rex King claimed to be the true leader of the Bahá’ís rejecting Remey and Marangella, Leland Jensen established his own group, and some of Remey’s followers attempted to follow Giuseppe Pepe, who rejected any involvement with them.