Mason Remey

After embracing the Baháʼí Faith in Paris, Remey returned to Washington, D.C., and became a prominent author, public speaker, and organizer.[1] Remey proposed the idea to the Baha'is in Washington to organize the first local Spiritual Assembly in the city, which he was elected to on 14 March 1907.[4] He made a second pilgrimage to see ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in 1907, and returned in 1908, 1909, 1914, and 1921.[4] He traveled extensively to lecture in the interests of the faith,[9] visiting Iran, Russia, and Central asia in 1908, and in 1910 became the first Baháʼí to circle the globe on teaching trips, along with his companion Howard Struven.[13][14] Robert Stockman wrote of his journeys:[4]

In November 1909 Charles Mason Remey and Howard Struven began the first Bahá’í teaching trip to circle the globe. Leaving San Francisco, they traveled to Hawaii, four cities in Japan, Shanghai, Singapore, three cities in Burma, at least eight cities in India, and Palestine; they returned to the United States in June 1910. In 1914 Remey and George Latimer crossed military lines to teach the Faith in France, England, and Germany. Lesser known traveling teaching trips occurred in 1919, 1943, and 1944, to the American south; 1945, to the Northeastern United States; 1945–46, to Latin America; 1946, to the Midwest; 1947, to the American south, Europe, and Latin America; 1948, to Germany, Austria, Italy, and England; and 1949, to Europe.

According to William Garlington, Washington D.C. became the third most influential group of American Baháʼís in the first decade of the 20th century (after Chicago and New York), because of "its talented membership, which included leaders such as Laura Barney, Mason Remey, and Pauline Hannen."[15]

At the first national convention of American Baháʼís in March 1909, Remey was the delegate representing Washington, and was elected to the executive committee of the "Bahai Temple Unity", a precursor to the National Spiritual Assembly.[4][14] In 1917–1918 Remey chaired a committee investigating the Chicago Reading Room, a study group that combined the teachings of Baháʼu'lláh with those of an Bostonian occultist, ultimately expelling its members as "violators".[16] Remey's loyalty brought him praise from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and later Shoghi Effendi mentioned him as one of the most eminent Baháʼís in America.[17]

Remey was also a prolific writer, and published several volumes on Baháʼí history and teachings.[9] His first pamphlet was published in 1905 and was among the first material on the religion available to American Baháʼís.[4] In part due to his fear of global cataclysm, Remey compiled much of his records and in 1940 he provided copies to several public libraries, requesting them not to be opened until 1995.[9][4]

According to Juliet Thompson's diary, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá suggested that she marry Remey, and in 1909 asked her how she felt about it. They were engaged for a time but did not marry. Thompson anguished over her decision, which she felt would cause ʻAbdu'l-Baha disappointment.[18][4]

During the 1930s, Remey lived in Washington, D.C. where he enjoyed an active social life.[9] He was briefly married to heiress Gertrude Heim Klemm from 17 July 1931 until her suicide on 5 August 1932[4] (Klemm's gravestone gives the Paris wedding as 11 July[11]). They had no children.

Remey had a large personal fortune from his family and his late wife.[4] He spent much of it on two projects: his mansion on Embassy Row in Washington, built around 1930, and the "Remeum".[4]

Remey contracted with Pohick Church in 1937 to build a huge family mausoleum on its grounds in Virginia, to be located on five acres of land about one half-mile south of the church building.[11] Construction began in 1939. According to an article in the Washington Evening Star and Daily News, the mausoleum was planned as a "magnificent complex of walled courtyards, underground chambers with soaring vaulted ceilings, marble reliefs and statues, carved pillars, chapels and burial vaults".[11] It was to be four times the size of Pohick Church, using over two million bricks, and costing over a million dollars ($18.9 million in 2021 dollars).[11][4] It had relief panels depicting historical events in the life of Remey's family, such as the landing of the Mayflower and the sinking of the USS Yorktown; a pair of massive lions guarding the entrance; life-size statues; depictions of Christian saints; and a huge ornate sarcophagus of Portuguese marble was prepared for himself.[11][4] Remey transported the bodies of fifteen relatives to the Remeum.

The grounds were landscaped. The complex had electric chandeliers, ventilation and plumbing. A trust account was established with the church for maintenance. Remey planned to crown it with a three-story structure that would have dwarfed the church.[23] The Remeum was never finished.

The only above-ground remnants of Remey's mausoleum are the monument (left) and two chimney vents, one of which is shown (right). The vast underground complex was abandoned and filled in with dirt from nearby road construction sometime after 1973.

Problems soon developed in the 1950s, and the mausoleum site became the target of vandals. As a preventative measure, the entrance was bricked up to prevent access, but the wall was breached in 1956 by high school boys with axes, as reported by the Morning Star:[11]

Rather than being the thing of beauty as it was designed, the mausoleum now resembles a dump. Fragments of smashed marble reliefs and statues litter the floors, along with beer cans, whiskey bottles and old candles. Wooden coffins and chests have been broken to bits and their charred remnants scattered....

Thousands of tiny glass fragments designed to form mosaics have been poured into the ground. Statues too large to steal or smash have been chipped and painted or blackened with soot from candles and torches. ... What was planned to serve as a place of worship and remembrance is now the scene of nocturnal beer busts, drug parties, high school initiations and exploring expeditions. ...

An unknown number of urns containing the ashes of cremated bodies still lie amidst the trash in the mausoleum.

By 1958 the church vestry became concerned, and in 1962 refused to grant permission for any more work to be done on the site. Soon negotiations began to break the original contract; in 1968 the property reverted to the church, and Remey was given five years to remove anything of value from the site. Most of the dead were taken by relatives to another family cemetery in New York; Remey's wife Gertrude was reinterred in the main church cemetery.[11] After the last of the bodies was removed, the Remeum was demolished beginning in 1973 on the orders of the Episcopal church, and the last of the aboveground ruins was finally bulldozed ten years later.[23] Little remains on the site to mark the former presence of the complex save an obelisk dedicated to Remey's parents and a pair of structures which served as chimneys or vents.[11]

Robert Stockman wrote:[4]

The Remeum reflected a nearly obsessive concern about immortality and his future place in history that Remey increasingly manifested as he grew older.

The Baháʼí world entered a leadership crisis upon the death of Shoghi Effendi, who died without children or an appointed successor. All male descendants of Baha'u'llah were either dead or excommunicated, and the hereditary institution of the Guardian was defunct.[31]

When Shoghi Effendi died on 4 November 1957, Shoghi Effendi's personal room and safe were sealed and constantly guarded. 26 of the 27 living Hands arrived by 17 November, and on 19 November, Mason Remey along with 8 others found all seals intact and searched the room for a will, which was not found.[4][32]

Later the Hands of the Cause met in a private conclave at Bahjí on 20 November. They decided that the situation of the Guardian having died without being able to appoint a successor was a situation not dealt with in the texts that define the Baháʼí administration, and that the matter would need to be reviewed and adjudicated by the Universal House of Justice, an institution envisaged by Baha'u'llah that had not yet been elected.[33][34] Their unanimous proclamation made 25 November stated,[35]

Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, passed away... without having appointed his successor;

AND WHEREAS it is now fallen upon us... to preserve the unity, the security and the development of the Baháʼí World Community and all its institutions;

AND WHEREAS in accordance with the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá...;

We nominate and appoint from our own number to act on our behalf as the Custodians of the Baháʼí World Faith [list of nine] to exercise... all such functions, rights and powers in succession to the Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith... as are necessary to serve the interests of the Baháʼí World Faith, and this until such time as the Universal House of Justice, upon being duly established and elected... may otherwise determine.

Remey signed the declaration that Shoghi Effendi died "without having appointed his successor" and was also appointed as one of the Custodians to stay in Haifa.[4] Several other proclamations were made that day specifying the authority and procedural functioning of the Hands and the Custodians. Among them were,[36]

• "That the entire body of the Hands of the Cause, meeting annually or whenever convened by the nine Hands, shall determine when and how the International Baháʼí Council shall pass through the successive stages outlined by Shoghi Effendi culminating in the election of the Universal House of Justice;"
• "That the authority to expel violators from the Faith shall be vested in the body of nine Hands..."

A longer proclamation, also signed by all the Hands, was sent to the Baháʼís of the world on 25 November, which mentioned several points about the continuation of authority of the Baháʼí Faith:[37]

The Aghsán (branches) one and all are either dead or have been declared violators of the Covenant by the Guardian... The first effect of the realization that no successor to Shoghi Effendi could have been appointed by him was to plunge the Hands of the Cause into the very abyss of despair.

...we Hands of the Cause have constituted a body of nine Hands to serve at the Baháʼí World Centre. This body of nine Hands will energetically deal with the protection of the Faith whenever attacks, whether from within or outside the Baháʼí community, are reported by Hands from their areas or by National or Regional Assemblies or whether they arise within the Holy Land. ... As to the International Baháʼí Council... that body will in the course of time finally fulfil its purpose through the formation of the Universal House of Justice... The main work of the Council has been to act as the Guardian's representative in matters involving the Israeli Government and its courts of law. ... Meanwhile the entire body of the Hands... will decide when and how the International Baháʼí Council is to evolve through the successive stages outlined by the Guardian, culminating in the call to election of the Universal House of Justice by the membership of all National Spiritual Assemblies.

When that divinely ordained body comes into existence, all the conditions of the Faith can be examined anew...

Following these events Time magazine reported that there were debates about two possible candidates for Guardian.[38] Though the Hands dedicated to not disclose any details of the conclaves, Remey later revealed memoirs with details of the events.[39] He wrote that his status as president of the International Baha'i Council was never mentioned in any of the conclaves,[40] and that the idea of not having another Guardian was introduced by Rahmatu'lláh Muhájir.[41]

The idea of no single person as the supreme head of the religion was disturbing to some Baháʼí of the time.[33] In 1958 two American Hands, Paul Haney and Corinne True, and the NSA began circulating a document expressing their belief that the "door to the appointment of a second Guardian... is closed", but it was blocked by an urgent cablegram from the custodial Hands in Haifa, indicating that they were "greatly disturbed" and to delete all references to it.[42]

In April 1960, Remey wrote an announcement that he was the successor to Shoghi Effendi, and requested that it be read at the upcoming national convention. In his cover letter to Charles Wolcott, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, he wrote,[45]

Enclosed I send you my Proclamation of my Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.

... If it be the wish of the convention that I go to the Wilmette at this time to meet the Baha'is of America and further proclaim, declare and explain my status for life as commander in chief of Baha'i affairs of the world as I was appointed to do by our late Beloved Guardian as the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, I will be very pleased indeed to meet the convention.

Should the convention wish this, let them send three believers of their choice to Washington bringing me their invitation to come to them – these three representatives of the convention to usher me to the convention in waiting for me...

Remey believed his appointment as president of the international council represented an appointment by Shoghi Effendi as Guardian, because the appointed council was a precursor to the elected Universal House of Justice.[46] In his intended announcement at the convention, he wrote,[47]

The Beloved Guardian singled me, Mason Remey, out from amongst all of the Believers upon earth to occupy the position of President of the Baha'i International Council. This is the only position suggestive of authority that Shoghi Effendi ever bestowed upon anyone, the only special and specific appointment of authority to any man ever made by him.

The Beloved Guardian declared the Baha'i International Council to be the forerunner of and the first step toward the establishment of the Universal House of Justice... ...

Therefore, inasmuch as The Beloved Guardian in His Infallibility has thus placed me in command of the Faith... I can do nothing but assume my place that he has given me with all of the responsibilities, the prerequisites and emoluments that go with this position...

Remey wrote that his delay in announcing his status was to give others "ample time to discover for themselves", but "until now no one, other than I have discovered that such authority was vested in me".[48] He claimed in the proclamation that he made the declaration as Guardian to the Hands previously (which they claimed was false[49]), and that he had "definitely known for the past twelve years more or less".[48] He said that,[48]

All these plans of the Hands of the Faith for 1963 that are so absorbing and confusing to the people of the Faith must be dropped and stopped immediately. I am the only one who can command this situation so I have arisen to do so for I alone in all this world have been given the authority and the power to accomplish this.

...

I now command the Hands of the Faith to stop all of their preparations for 1963 and furthermore I command all believers... to immediately cease cooperating with and giving support to this fallacious program for 1963.

His letter to the convention was refused. After a brief attempt at reconciliation and some hesitation among the Hands, he was declared a Covenant-breaker by all 26 remaining Hands of the Cause on 26 July 1960, along with anyone actively supporting his claims.[50][51] Almost the whole Baháʼí world rejected his claim, which did not even address the requirements that Guardians be descendants of Baha'u'llah — making him ineligible — and that appointments must be clearly confirmed by the nine resident Hands of the Cause in Haifa.[52][53]

Remey gained very little support around the world, and himself noted that "almost the entire Baha'i world" rejected his claim.[44] He sent his proclamation to other National Spiritual Assemblies, and a majority of the one in France accepted him.[4] The 11 other extant National Assemblies rejected him. He gained supporters mostly from the United States,[54] but also in parts of Europe, Pakistan (mostly in Faisalabad and Sialkot[55]), and in Lucknow, India.[56] Estimates of Remey's initial following range from 15,[57] to 100,[58] to 150,[8] to several hundred[59] individuals.

The Hands sent Abu'l-Qásim Faizi to France as their representative, with specific instructions to dissolve the National Assembly and call for a new election.[60]

Although initially disturbing, the mainstream Baháʼís paid little attention to his movement within a few years.[61][8] The Universal House of Justice was elected in 1963, and the Custodians officially passed their authority as the head of the Faith to the Universal House of Justice,[62] which soon announced that it did not have the power to appoint or legislate to make possible the appointment of a second Guardian to succeed Shoghi Effendi.[46][63]

Remey wrote three letters to his supporters soon after his excommunication, sharing his belief that "the only true and legitimate Baha'is are those now serving under the Second Guardian of the Faith."[64] He initially called his sect the Orthodox Baha'is Under the Hereditary Guardianship.[1]

Remey settled in Florence, Italy, until the end of his life. From there he appointed three local spiritual assemblies in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and Lucknow, India, then organized the election of two National Assemblies in 1963 – in the United States and Pakistan.[56]

In 1964 the Santa Fe assembly filed a lawsuit against the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) of the Baháʼís of the United States to receive the legal title to the Baháʼí House of Worship in Illinois, and all other property owned by the NSA. The NSA counter-sued and won.[65] The Santa Fe assembly lost the right to use the term "Baháʼí" in printed material. Remey then changed the name of his sect from "Baháʼís Under the Hereditary Guardianship" to "Abha World Faith" and also referred to it as the "Orthodox Faith of Baháʼu'lláh" or "Orthodox Abha World Faith",[66][67] and himself as the "Guardian of the Orthodox Baha'is".[46] In 1966, Remey asked the Santa Fe assembly to dissolve, as well as the second International Baháʼí Council that he had appointed with Joel Marangella, residing in France, as president.[68][4]

Beginning in 1966–67, Remey was abandoned by almost all of his followers,[69] and his movement began to weaken and decline rapidly.[70] Besides dissolving the institutions that he had organized, Remey began focusing on impending global catastrophe and criticizing Shoghi Effendi.

In the late 1940s, he expressed his belief that nuclear war would destroy much of the world, and by the 1960s he stated publicly that the Earth's axis would tilt and produce global floods. He encouraged his followers to move to high ground in the Rocky Mountains to avoid the imminent floods.[71] These beliefs were the foundation of why he deposited copies of his memoirs in several prominent libraries in 1940, to ensure that a set would survive.[4]

In 1966 he became very critical of Shoghi Effendi. In a letter that year he reasoned that Shoghi Effendi had been practicing the religion of the Báb, and that,[72]

The first Guardian of the Faith so construed the Master Abdu'l Baha's Will and Testament that he formed his Administration upon the Babi Faith and not upon the Baha'i Faith. This mistake has caused so much confusion and misunderstanding and trouble that the only thing for the second Guardian to do, to set matters aright, is to discard all which Shoghi Effendi did and to institute a New Faith which shall be the Orthodox Faith under the Holy Name of ABHA in order to carry out the conditions that will lead to the establishment of the TRUE Baha'i Faith (of Baha'u'llah) which Faith has not yet been established in the world.

In a further letter the following year, Remey again repeated that, "the First Guardian Shoghi Effendi built his Administration about the Babi Faith and not about the Baha'i Faith. Shoghi Effendi was a very confused soul. He was an ego maniac. He flaunted and disobeyed the laws of the Aqdas and created all this confusion himself."[69]

These ideas came as a surprise to Remey's small band of followers, and nearly all of them abandoned him. They were not organized until several of them began forming their own groups based on different understandings of succession, even before his death in 1974.[73][46] The majority of them claimed that Remey was showing signs of senility.[69] The number of people who recognized his claim had greatly diminished by the time of his death.[2]

From 1962, Remey resided in Florence, Italy, and died there on 4 February 1974, at the age of 99.[9] Having been abandoned by all of his followers, he was buried by his non-Baháʼí secretary without religious ceremony in Florence.[6][4][74] His obituary in the Washington Star accidentally gave his name as George Mason Remey.[11]

In 1961 Joel Marangella (1918–2013) received a letter from Remey, and a note that, "...in or after 1963. You will know when to break the seal."[76] In 1964 Remey appointed members to a second International Baháʼí Council with Marangella as president, significant due to Remey's claim to Guardianship being based on the same appointment. In 1965 Remey activated the council, and in 1966 wrote letters passing the "affairs of the Faith" to the council, then later dissolving it. In 1969 Marangella made an announcement that the letter of 1961 was Remey's appointment of him as the third Guardian, and that he had been the Guardian since 1964, invalidating Remey's pronouncements from that point forward.[77]

Marangella gained the support of most of Remey's followers,[78][46] who came to be known as Orthodox Baháʼís.[54] One source estimated them at no more than 100 members in 1988, with the largest concentration being 11 in Roswell, New Mexico.[79] The group claimed a United States membership of about 40 in a 2007 court case.[80]

Donald Harvey was appointed by Remey as "Third Guardian" in 1967,[1] and the first of five "elders", but he later dissolved the body of elders.[4] Donald Harvey never gained much of a following.[81] When Harvey died in 1991, leadership went to Jacques Soghomonian,[82] and when he died in 2013 it passed to E.S. Yazdani.[83]

Leland Jensen was initially a supporter of Remey and then left the group. After a stint in prison for sexually molesting a minor,[84] he made several religious claims of his own and established himself as the head of an apocalyptic cult.[1] He believed that Remey was the adopted son of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and that Remey's adopted son Joseph Pepe was the third Guardian, something that Pepe refused to entertain.[85] Jensen made headlines for predicting a nuclear holocaust in 1980, and his followers became the subject of academic studies in cognitive dissonance.[46][86][87] Membership peaked in 1980 with 150–200, but declined after the failed prophecy of 1980. By 1990 there were fewer than 100 adherents, and defection continued in the 1990s and beyond.[88] They were concentrated in Montana.

Rex King was elected to Remey's NSA of the United States with the most votes, and soon came into conflict with Remey. In 1969 he traveled to Italy with the hope of having Remey pass affairs over to him, but instead was labeled with the "station of satan".[89] King supported Marangella's claim, but soon took issue with the way Marangella was interpreting scripture.[90] King rejected all claimants to the Guardianship after Shoghi Effendi including Remey. He claimed that he, Rex King, was a "regent" pending the emergence of the second Guardian who was in "occultation". Hardly any of Remey's supporters followed King.[91] He called the group the "Orthodox Baháʼí Faith under the Regency" and held at least three annual conferences in the 1970s.[92] King died in 1977 and left a will appointing his three sons and a daughter-in-law as a council of regents, who changed their name to "Tarbiyat Baha'i Community".[82][93] They were concentrated in New Mexico.

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