Lua Getsinger

Louise "Lua" Aurora Getsinger (née Moore) (1 November 1871, Hume, NY – 1 May 1916, Cairo, Egypt) known as Lua Getsinger was one of the first Western members of the Bahá'í Faith,[1] becoming a member in 1897. A prominent disciple of `Abdu'l-Bahá, she was given the title "Herald of the Covenant" and "Mother Teacher of the West" by 'Abdu'l-Baha.

Lua was the sixth of 10 children born to Ellen McBride (born 1843) and her husband Reuben D. Moore in Hume, New York, a rural small town located in northwestern New York State's Wyoming County, about 90 kilometers south of Lake Ontario.2

Since her youth she had tended to a colorful mode of dress and avoiding fashions of the day. When `Abdu'l-Bahá asked her to travel in the East for him he asked her to dress in a less conspicuous fashion. She then designed a form of dress with a royal dark blue of inset panels of different fabric with silk trimmings. [2]

‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave her the title “Livá” and a “Banner”, given her service to the Faith in numerous places like Paris and throughout the American continent; she taught Bahá’u’lláh’s Principles of Unity and Peace in India and represented the Faith in visits to Muzaffari’d-Dín Shah of Persia when he visited Paris, and to the Maharajah of Jalowar, India.[3]

Lua Getsinger died unexpectedly of heart failure while in Egypt on May 2, 1916, at the age of forty three. [4]

References

  1. ↑ Sandra Hutchinson; Richard Hollinger (2006). "Women in the North American Baha'i Community". In Keller, Rosemary Skinner; Ruether, Rosemary Radford; Cantlon, Marie. Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America: Native American creation stories. Indiana University Press. pp. 776–786. ISBN 0-253-34687-8.
  2. ↑ Armstrong-Ingram, R. Jackson (1998). Written in Light; `Abdu'l-Bahá and the American Bahá'í Community. Los Angeles, USA: Kalimat Press. p. 22. ISBN 1-890688-02-9.
  3. ↑ "Biography: Lua Getsinger".
  4. ↑ Sockett, Robert. "The Short and Fearless Life of Lua Getsinger".

Further reading