Leonora Armstrong
| Leonora Armstrong | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 23, 1895 Hudson, New York |
| Died | October 17, 1980 (aged 85) Salvador |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Bahá'í Faith in Brazil |
Leonora Stirling Holsapple Armstrong (June 23, 1895 – October 17, 1980) was the first Bahá'í to live in Brazil. She went as a pioneer to Brazil in 1921 when she was only 25 years old and due to her efforts and services for the Bahá'í Faith in Brazil and across Latin America she was named the 'Spiritual Mother of the Bahá'ís of South America'.
Leonora Stirling Holsapple was born on June 23, 1895 in the City of Hudson, New York. Her father was businessman Samuel Norris Holsapple and her mother was Grace Heathcote Stirling, who served actively in civic work and had taught school. However, Grace had serious health problems [what would later be known as diabetes], and died soon after Leonora turned five years old. This created a profound effect upon Leonora and her younger sister Alethe during their childhood and adolescence. Their father was devastated at the loss and often left the two little girls to the care of their grandmothers and a housekeeper.
Despite her early suffering Leonora was very talented from an early age, even considered a child prodigy. She had never told anyone how she had read the entire Bible through when still just a child. In her high school graduating class she received the highest honors and was made valedictorian. She was able to enter Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on a full four-year scholarship and was elected Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year. Leonora graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell, where she had studied Latin, Greek, Physics, Botany, Astronomy and Chemistry. After graduation from university she taught Latin in high schools for two years in Boston as well as being active in social work, just as her mother and grandmother had been before her.
When she was about eleven years old, her maternal grandmother, who had spent long years of spiritual searching, found the Bahá'í Faith and declared herself a Bahá'í [circa 1906]. She began to teach her granddaughters about the Bahá'í Faith and due to her example of devotion and efforts to spread the Bahá'í teachings, she inspired them by teaching them to sing some of the "hymns", to read and also to memorize passages from Hidden Words and prayers from the Bahá'í Writings. Later Leonora made her own efforts to share the Bahá'í teachings with her classmates and friends.
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