Martha Root

While she started teaching after her degree, she soon gave that up to start writing for different newspapers. In the summer of 1900 she worked at the Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph as the society editor, and then in the fall she worked for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. She then started writing about automobiles, which took her to France and then back to Pittsburgh.

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 that he had met members of other religions who actively promoted the brotherhood of humanity. This comment appealed to Martha and she questioned Roy, who gave her some Baha'i literature. While researching the religion she met several members of the Baháʼí community, including Thornton Chase and Arthur Agnew in Chicago, and in 1909, declared her faith in Baháʼu'lláh's teachings. During this time, she continued writing newspaper articles and also in 1909 she wrote a detailed article for the Pittsburgh Post about the history and teachings of the Baháʼí Faith. She also participated in the first annual Baháʼí convention, which took place in Chicago in 1911.[1]

During 1911 and 1912, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, visited the United States and Canada. Martha attended many of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's talks, and arranged his talk in Pittsburgh. During this time Martha developed breast cancer, but with advice from ʻAbdu'l-Baha it went into remission for many years.

After meeting with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Martha was profoundly affected by His explanations of His Father's Cause and teachings, and began her journeys where she would spread the teachings of the Baháʼí Faith. She did not let her small stature, lack of money or poor health stop her. She left the United States on January 30, 1915, and after visiting some countries in Europe, she desired to visit Palestine and the Baháʼí holy places, but she could not go due to First World War. Instead, she travelled to Egypt and stayed there six months. During that time she wrote newspaper articles. She then travelled to Bombay, Rangoon, Japan, and Hawaii. She arrived back in the continental United States when she reached San Francisco on August 29, 1915.

After staying in the United States for five years, she then travelled to Canada in 1920, visiting Saint John, Montreal, London and Saint Thomas where she arranged teaching programs. She then travelled to Mexico and then Guatemala where she was going to meet with the president, but due to a political revolution, the meeting never happened. By 1921, her breast cancer had spread and she was in frequent pain; her father's health was also failing, and thus her travels become more limited.

In 1923 she arrived in Bucharest and sent the Queen a copy of the book Baháʼu'lláh and the New Era. Two days after the Queen received the book she granted Martha Root an audience in the palace. The first of eight successive audiences with Queen Marie of Romania took place in January 1926 in Controceni Palace in Bucharest. The second, in 1927 in Pelisor Palace in Sinaia, was followed by a visit in January 1928 at the royal palace in Belgrade. 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. In February 1934 and February 1936, audiences were granted at Controceni Palace.

Baháʼí sources state that Marie was the first member of a royal family to become a Baháʼí,[2] The biographer Hannah Pakula noted Marie had an intense connection with the religion in her personal life but "…continued to attend the Protestant Church" though she "…prayed 'better at home with my Baháʼu'lláh books and teachings…'."[3] In 1976, William McElwee Miller published a book about the Baháʼí Faith that included a letter written in 1970 by Marie's daughter Ileana who denied any such conversion had taken place.[4]

In 1925 Martha Root travelled to the Baháʼí holy land, and met Bahíyyih Khánum and Shoghi Effendi. She then travelled to the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, once again teaching the Baháʼí Faith. She then travelled to Iran, even though Shoghi Effendi recommended not doing so. She hoped to meet with the Sháh, Reza Khan Pahlavi, but did not do so.