Queen Marie of Romania

“Love, Faith, Courage – with these three we can win the world.”
Queen Marie of Romania1

I marvel
at how history and religion intertwine,
threads in the tapestry of time.

Two women
of the same bloodline:
grandmother and granddaughter
queens of different nations,
both of them popular
and loved.

Queen Marie was born, Marie Alexandra Victoria, on October 29, 1875 in Kent, England. Her father was Alfred (the second son of Queen Victoria), Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,2 and her mother was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.3 In January of 1893 she married Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania and, when Ferdinand ascended the throne in 1914, she became Queen Marie of Romania.4

Baha'u'llah, a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire, between 1867 and 1870 wrote letters to the rules of the world. One of those rulers was Queen Victoria, the grandmother of Queen Marie. Queen Victoria's response was “If this is of God it will endure; if not, it can do no harm.”5

In 1923, Martha Root, a traveling Baha'i Teacher, met Queen Marie6 and gave her, both verbal and written, information about Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha (Baha'u'llah's son). After her husband, King Ferdinand, died Queen Marie declare her support for the Baha'i Faith.7 She wrote several letters to newspapers about Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, even quoting some of Baha'u'llah's and 'Abdu'l-Baha's words. These can be found in Appreciations of the Baha'i Faith by Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania89

I am awestruck
at the way history and religion intertwine,
threads in the tapestry of time.

As I read Dowager Queen Marie's Appreciations of my chosen faith, I contemplate the coincidence, or perhaps I should say seeming coincidence, of the letter Baha'u'llah sent to Queen Victoria and her granddaughter's response to the message of Baha'u'llah. The truth is, I do not believe in coincidence. I believe in cause and effect, I believe that sometimes we, human beings, do not understand how one incident causes or effects another, and I believe there are many things we will not understand until our souls separate from our bodies at death.

Queen Marie's words
remind me
of how I feel
each time I read
the Sacred Scriptures
or intone the prayers
revealed by Baha'u'llah.

In one of the letters of Appreciations (letter #4), Queen Marie explains, her understanding, the Baha'i concept of progressive revelation. She does not mention progressive revelation per se, rather she explains the concept in a way that is easily understood. There have been times in my life that I wish I could have explained it that clearly and simply. Perhaps it is the fact that she is writing the explanation out rather then explaining it verbally. I know that when I write, I have to edit everything I submit. Maybe that is how she explained it so clearly, she rewrote her letters before she sent them to newspapers.

The Appreciations she wrote has only eight sections to it. It does not take long to read them if you are not attempting to write an essay as you read or take notes. I will have to read Queen Marie's words of appreciation again because they refresh my mind and give me insight into the way she felt about spiritual concepts.

Word Count: 556

Footnotes
1  Quoted in http://bahaichronicles.org/marie-alexandra-victoria/
2  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Duke_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha
3  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_of_Romania
4  ibid
5  http://bahaiteachings.org/bahaullah-addresses-queen-victoria
6  http://bahaichronicles.org/622/
7  http://bahaiteachings.org/the-bahai-queen
8  http://www.tkinter.smig.net/QueenMarie/BahaiFaith/index.htm
9  Appreciations of the Bahá'í Faith, Reprinted from The Bahá'í World, Vol. VIII, Bahá'í Publishing Committee, Wilmette, Illinois, 1941