In future people will marvel at the indomitable will of Christian Western Women, who upon recognizing Baha’u’llah as the Promised One of all religions, adopted Him without reservation as the Lord of the Age, and traveling across the whole earth they established His faith in all regions.
The last Hands of the Cause were appointed in 1957. These women will be remembered for all time.
The women whose photographs randomly appear below, in no particular order, are heroines who stood at the vanguard of a new age and proclaimed it. Though they never sought any position or recognition, they were acknowledged and appointed by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, as Hands of the Cause of God for the monumental services each of them rendered.
There is no greater proof that this is the Day of God – and a new age, fulfilling the promises made in the scriptures of all previous dispensations – than the individual accomplishments of these Baha’i heroines, and, today, there are millions of women like them who serve the Cause of Baha’u’llah.
Hand of the Cause of God
Agnes Baldwin Alexander
1875 – 1971
Hand of the Cause of God
Mary Sutherland Maxwell
1910 – 2000
Hand of the Cause of God
Clara Dunn
1869 – 1960
Hand of the Cause of God
Dorothy Beecher Baker
1898-1954
Hand of the Cause of God
Martha Louise Root
1872 – 1939
Hand of the Cause of God
Corinne Knight True
1861-1961
Hand of the Cause of God
Keith Ransom-Kehler
1876 – 1933
Hand of the Cause of God
Amelia Engelder Collins
1873-1962
Each of these heroines has her own amazing story filled with the adventure of their service to the Cause of Baha’u’llah, the promised redeemer of the world. The story of these souls includes one who went from high society in America, a graduate of Vassar and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution whose great-great-grandfather was a captain in the American Revolutionary War and whose father was a descendant of a Confederate officer. This American woman was buried between two martyrs in Iran who were executed for their faith in 1879. Baha’u’llah titled them the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs. You can read about the life and service of Keith Ransom-Kehler, the unique American woman acknowledged by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha’i faith, as the first American Baha’i martyr. She was also the first woman to be appointed a Hand of the Cause of God. See The Baha’i Encyclopedia Project, Biography Keith Ransom-Kehler.