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Leonora Holsapple Armstrong (June 23, 1895 – October 17, 1980) was the first Bahá'í to live in Brazil and she is regarded as a 'Spiritual Mother of the Bahá'ís of Latin America'. She went as a pioneer to Brazil in 1921 when she was only 25 years old and due to her efforts and services for the Bahá'í Faith in Brazil, she was appointed Councillor in 1973 by the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing institution of the Bahá'í Faith.
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Leonora Holsapple Armstrong was born on June 23, 1895 in the little town of Hudson, New York. Her father was Samuel Norris Holsapple and her mother was Grace Stirling, who served actively in civic work and had taught school. However, Grace had great problems of health and died soon after Leonora turned five years old, which caused a profound effect on Leonora and her younger sister Alethe during their childhood and adolescence.
Despite her suffering Leonora was a gifted student during all her childhood. In her high school graduating class she received the highest honors and was made valedictorian. She was able to enter Cornell University from Ithaca, New York on a scholarship and was elected Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year. Leonora graduated from an English course in the Cornell University, she also obtained specialty in Latin and completed studies of other languages such as German, Spanish and Esperanto. She also graduated on subjects such as Literature, Astronomy, Botanic, Physics and Chemistry. After graduation from college she taught Latin in high schools and was active in social work as her mother and grandmother had been before her.
When she was thirteen years old, her maternal grandmother who spent long years after spiritual searching found the Bahá'í Faith and declared herself a Bahá'í. She began to teach her granddaughters about the Bahá'í Faith and due to her example of devotion and efforts to spread the Bahá'í teachings, that impressed Leonora highly enough that she started to search about the Bahá'í Faith and also began to memorize passages and prayers from the Bahá'í Writings. Later she made her own efforts to share the Bahá'í teachings with her classmates and friends.
The desire to pioneer first came in Leonora's mind when `Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets of the Divine Plan were unveiled at the Bahá'í Convention held in New York in 1919. Spontaneously, and at once, she wrote to `Abdu'l-Bahá, offering herself in service and his reply to that was:
"Thou hadst expressed thy great wish to be of service to the Divine Threshold and to heal the infirm with the Divine Panacea--the infirm who is afflicted with passion and self. Spiritual malady is more severe than physical illness for it may be that the latter may be converted by the least remedy into health and vigor, while the former will not be cured by a thousand well-known remedies . . . My hope is that thou mayest become a spiritual physician."
Leonora was very touched by the message from `Abdu'l-Bahá and also Martha Root, a well-known Bahá'í reported who traveled widely, served as a great influence for her on choosing South America as her destination. In her own words Leonora said:
"This hope of the Master's became my highest aspiration and when, early in 1920, I read His Tablet to Martha Root, commending her teaching work in South America and stressing the importance of its being followed up by others, it at once seemed to me that here there might be a definite task for me. A letter to Martha brought an immediate reply, with all encouragement."
Martha Root had made a historical visit to South America in 1919 and encouraged Leonora by sharing her experiences and sending a copy of her own diary notes from that period. This led Leonora to consider pioneering in the South America and she chose Brazil as the destination.
Many of Leonora's family members and friends expressed great concerns in relation to her decision of pioneering to Brazil. Many of them believed that she was taking a very dangerous risk, by traveling alone without knowing anyone in Brazil or even knowing the country's language. However, her desire to teach the Bahá'í Faith was so great, that on February 1, 1921 she arrived in the port of Rio de Janeiro. At that time she was only 25 years old and she did not know anyone in that country. The fact that she was a woman and single, in a time that womans had less rights and freedom, made her situation a lot more complicated but she still managed to stay in Brazil. Leonora got her first job in a very simple office through a young theosophist in the city of Santos, São Paulo. Afterwards she started to give private English classes, which made her able to make contacts to teach the Bahá'í Faith. Sometimes when she could, Leonora would participate as a speaker in the national conferences - her first year in Rio de Janeiro, she participated in the National Congress of Esperanto which extended to São Paulo and Santos and later to many other capitals of Brazil.
In 1925 in the city of Belém, Pará she published her first translation (English to Portuguese) of the book Paris Talks written by `Abdu'l-Bahá. Leonora beyond being a lecturer, educator and translator was also a social assistant, having also kept an orphanage, in Salvador, Bahia, in the period of 1928-1930, for abandoned and needy children. In her first years in Brazil, she chose to establish herself in Salvador, Bahia and travel several of times to Belém and Manaus. She always had a lot of support from many theosophists and esperantists in her services. In 1927 she published many articles and folders about the Bahá'í Faith in Belém. In 1927 she was the first Bahá'í to visit and give lectures about the Bahá'í Faith in Colombia, Venezuela, Coracion, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Haiti, Guyana and Suriname as part of her plan to compliment and complete Martha Root's unfulfilled intention of visiting all the Latin American countries for the purpose of presenting the religion to an audience.[1]
Leonora was living in Brazil when she saw to a translation into Spanish. She decided to go to Madrid, Spain to study Spanish because Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, wanted Spanish literature and she wanted to become proficient in the language.[2] In July 1930 she boarded a French ship which first took her to several ports of call in West Africa and then to Barcelona. From Barcelona she proceeded to Madrid where she intended to take university courses. However she soon fell seriously ill for a time and was unable to enter the course at the University of Madrid. Shortly thereafter she went on Bahá'í pilgrimage and afterwards focused her efforts in Latin and South America.[1]
In 1940 at Salvador - after 19 years of her dedicated work of education, translations and social services - Leonora was thrilled to see the formation of the first official Bahá'í Institution in Brazil: the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Salvador, composed by nine members, annually elected by the Bahá'í community in each locality. She was one of the members of this Assembly together with the first ones to accept and declare themselves bahá'ís in that city. After that, a second Local Spiritual Assembly was formed in Rio de Janeiro and in 1946 a third one was formed in the city of São Paulo. In 1961 she saw the establishment of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Brazil. In 1973, due to her services dedicated for the Bahá'í Faith in Brazil, Leonora was appointed Counciler by the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing institution of the Bahá'í Faith. The Councilers are those who act in the continental levels and dedicate the time for the education and the protection of the Bahá'í Cause.
In 1941, Leonora married an English called Harold Armstrong who she had known for many years. He was a great support on helping Leonora to accomplish many of the services that she dedicated during her life to the Bahá'í Cause. Leonora and her husband lived around many places in Brazil and by not having children, they had adopted and they raised some children providing them basic needs and education.
Leonora was also a notable defender of the women's rights - emphasizing the role of educadors and servants for the cause of world peace. Her message, recorded in a tape in Salvador, Bahia days before her death, in October 1980, was addressed to hundreds of women gathered in the Centre of Conventions of Brasília, participants of the first Women's Latin-American Bahá'í Conference. Here were some excerpts from her message:
"Woman, light of the future generation - when we, the women of the world, reflect on the true meaning of this subject that was chosen and to the measure that its full meaning penetrate deeply each time in the conscience of each woman, we should understand how loving, what a supreme privilege is ours and inescapable duty we have, and than we should rise like never before, to fulfill our first obligation. The women know that they are the first educators of the humanity… "
After living in Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and having passed most of her last years in Minas Gerais, in the city of Juiz de Fora, she died on October 17, 1980 with 85 years of age, in the city of Salvador. In that same day, hundreds of Bahá'ís from several communities of Latin America were gathered in Brasília, participating of I Women's Latin-American Bahá'í Conference. The climax of this meeting for promotion of the condition of the woman was the moment where a writing with her words of greeting to the participants of the event echoed for the audience at the ample Center of Conventions.