| Montréal Montreal | ||
|---|---|---|
| City in Canada | ||
From top, left to right: The Bahá’í Shrine; the 2013 Montreal youth conference; the skyline of downtown Montreal from Mount Royal; and the Montreal Bahá’í Centre.
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| Location of Montreal
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| Local Office | Montreal, Quebec | |
| Local Assembly | Montréal | |
| - | Chair | Arash Saidi |
| - | Vice-chair | Nima Naimi |
| - | Secretary | Monique Richer-Gosselin |
| - | Treasurer | Amadou Diogo Barry |
| - | Janie Cardinal Fernandes | |
| - | Baudouin Kutuka Makasi | |
| - | Keyvan Mahjoor | |
| - | Stan Phillips | |
| - | Hossein Torkpour | |
| History: Firsts |
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| - | Bahá'í to visit | May Bolles Maxwell William Sutherland Maxwell |
| - | Local Assembly | 1922 |
| How to contact: | ||
| - | Phone | +1 (514) 849-0753 |
| - | info [at] bahaimontreal.org | |
| - | Address | 177, avenue des Pins Est, Montréal |
| - | Province | Quebec |
| - | Country | Canada |
| - | Postal code | H2W 1N9 |
| Official Website | Montreal Bahá’í Community | |
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Montreal is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec, home to the largest Bahá’í community in Quebec and the oldest Bahá’í community in Canada. It was the only Canadian city to have been visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His visit to North America; the home of the Maxwell family, where He stayed during His visit, is now maintained as a Shrine, the only one located outside of the Middle East.[1]
As of 2016[update], Montreal is the second-most populous city in Canada, with a population of 1,704,694. Located on the island of Montreal in the Saint Lawrence Seaway, it is dominated by Mount Royal, a triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city.[2][3] Montreal has been nicknamed the "City of Saints" and the "City of a Hundred Steeples" due to its reputation as a prominent bastion of the Catholic church,[4] a fact reflected in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's account of His visit as recorded in His Tablets of the Divine Plan.
History[edit]
May Bolles Maxwell, mother of Ruhiyyih Khanum, was called the "spiritual mother of Canada" by Shoghi Effendi. After becoming a Bahá’í in Paris, France in 1898, she married Canadian architect William Sutherland Maxwell in 1902 and moved to Montreal that summer. Although she was not the first believer to live in Montreal, her service and sacrifice helped to unite and consolidate the community in its infancy, establishing it as the first major stronghold of the Baha'i Faith in Canada.[1] Upon the advice of Shoghi Effendi, the Maxwell home is currently maintained by the Canadian Baha'i Community as a shrine.[5]
The Montreal Bahá’í community had grown to sixteen people by 1908. In that year, the community formed the Montreal branch of the Bahá’í Temple Unity—the forerunner to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada.[1]
Visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá[edit]
Montreal is the only Canadian city to have been visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His visit to North America, from August 30 to September 9, 1912. During his stay in the city, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave six talks: three in the Maxwell home; one in the Socialist club with 500 in attendance; one at the Unitarian Church of the Messiah; and one at the Methodist St. James Church. His visit received significant coverage from both the French and English press.[1] ‘Abdu’l-Bahá later wrote of His travels to Montreal in The Tablets of the Divine Plan:
| “ | Before My departure, many souls warned Me not to travel to Montreal, saying, the majority of the inhabitants are Catholics, and are in the utmost fanaticism, that they are submerged in the sea of imitations, that they have not the capability to hearken to the call of the Kingdom of God, that the veil of bigotry has so covered the eyes that they have deprived themselves from beholding the signs of the Most Great Guidance, and that the dogmas have taken possession of the hearts entirely, leaving no trace of reality. They asserted that should the Sun of Reality shine with perfect splendor throughout that Dominion, the dark, impenetrable clouds of superstitions have so enveloped the horizon that it would be utterly impossible for anyone to behold its rays. But these stories did not have any effect on the resolution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He, trusting in God, turned his face toward Montreal. When he entered that city he observed all the doors open, he found the hearts in the utmost receptivity and the ideal power of the Kingdom of God removing every obstacle and obstruction. In the churches and meetings of that Dominion he called men to the Kingdom of God with the utmost joy, and scattered such seeds which will be irrigated with the hand of divine power. Undoubtedly those seeds will grow, becoming green and verdant, and many rich harvests will be gathered. In the promotion of the divine principles he found no antagonist and no adversary. The believers he met in that city were in the utmost spirituality, and attracted with the fragrances of God. He found that through the effort of the maidservant of God Mrs. Maxwell a number of the sons and daughters of the Kingdom in that Dominion were gathered together and associated with each other, increasing this joyous exhilaration day by day. The time of sojourn was limited to a number of days, but the results in the future are inexhaustible. When a farmer comes into the possession of a virgin soil, in a short time he will bring under cultivation a large field. Therefore I hope that in the future Montreal may become so stirred, that the melody of the Kingdom may travel to all parts of the world from that Dominion and the breaths of the Holy Spirit may spread from that center to the East and the West of America. |
” |
| — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan[6] | ||
Early community development[edit]
The early 1920s saw the expansion of the Bahá’í community into other parts of Canada including Vancouver and Toronto, and the establishment of the first Local Spiritual Assemblies. The Montreal Assembly was established first, in 1922, a year after Shoghi Effendi took on his role as Guardian of the Faith. Later in the decade, in 1927, the first youth group in the West was formed in Montreal by two young men, Rowland Estall and Emeric Sala. This group, meeting at the then-established Montreal Baha'i Centre on Union Street, attracted many like-minded youth, gradually resulting in an increase of enrollments in the Montreal Baha'i community[7].
Contact[edit]
Montreal Baha'i Centre
177, avenue des Pins Est
Montréal, QC H2W 1N9
Phone: (514) 849-0753
Email: info@bahaimontreal.org
LSA Email: secretariat@bahaimontreal.org
Bahá’í Shrine
1548, avenue des Pins Ouest
Montréal, Québec
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Montréal Baha'i History". www.bahaimontreal.org. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
- ↑ "Island of Montreal". Natural Resources Canada. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
- ↑ Poirier, Jean (1979). "Île de Montréal". 5 (1). Quebec: Canoma: 6–8.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ↑ Leclerc, Jean-François (2002). "Montréal, la ville aux cent clochers : regards des Montréalais sur leurs lieux de culte". Template:Interlanguage link multi (in français). Quebec City.
- ↑ The Bahá’í Shrine in Canada. Baha'i Community of Canada. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.
- ↑ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, (Wilmette: US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1993), p. 95.
- ↑ Van den Hoonaard, Will C. The Origins of the Bahá’í Community of Canada, 1898-1948. pp. pp.78-79.
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See also[edit]
