Martha Root

Martha Louise Root (August 10, 1872 – September 28, 1939) was an American traveling teacher of the Baháʼí Faith in the early 20th century.

Known for her numerous visits with heads of state and other public figures, of special importance was her interaction with Queen Marie of Romania, considered the first royal to accept Baháʼu'lláh.

Martha, known as Mattie, was not a typical girl, since her interest lay in books rather than the usual domestic pursuits, and when she was 14 she earned enough money from writing to pay for a trip to Niagara Falls.

In 1908, she overheard Roy C. Wilhelm in a Pittsburgh restaurant talking about his visit to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Bahaʼis in ʻAkka in the Holy Land, and how he had met members of other religions who actively promoted the brotherhood of humanity.

While researching the religion, she met several members of the Baháʼí community, including Thornton Chase and Arthur Agnew in Chicago, and in 1909, she declared her faith in Baháʼu'lláh's teachings.

[1] During 1912, from April through December, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, visited the United States and Canada.

In 1921, she became the first female faculty member at Polish National Alliance College in Cambridge Springs, Pa. After her father's death on November 3, 1922, Martha started her travels once again at the age of 50.

In January 1926, Martha arrived in Bucharest, where, being advised that she would be unable to meet Queen Marie, she sent her a picture of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and a copy of the book, Baháʼu’lláh and the New Era.

"[2] As a result of her contact with Martha, Marie published an article supporting the Bahá’í Faith for Hearst and the North American Newspaper Alliance, for which she had started writing her own columns; and on May 4, she published an open letter in the Toronto Star, full of praise for the Bahá’í Faith and beginning by referring to Martha, "A woman brought me the other day a Book.

It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues, suspicions, even words, all aggressive patriotism even, are outside the one essential law of God, and that special beliefs are but surface things, whereas the heart that beats with divine love knows no tribe nor race.

A fourth visit took place in October 1929, at the Queen's summer palace, "Tehna Yuva," at Balcic, on the Black Sea.

In August 1932 and February 1933, Martha Root was received at the home of Princess Ileana (then Arch-Duchess Anton of Austria) at Mödling, near Vienna.

Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers of many confessions and wearied of their intolerance towards each other, I discovered in the Bahá’í Teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and misunderstood.