Myron H. Phelps

Myron Henry Phelps (Lewiston, Fulton County, Illinois, 2 April 1856 - Bombay, 29 December 1916) was a New York lawyer and religious writer who studied the Bahā'ī Faith and the Radha Soami movement, and supported India House in Manhattan. His biography of `Abdu'l-Bahā is still read today, as well as Phelps' Notes, his transcription of Mādhav Prasād Sinha's talks that is standard fare in the literature of the Radhasoami Satsang of Soami Bagh, Agra.[5]

Phelps was also interested in Buddhism. He had a secret "spiritual marriage" to Miranda de Souza Canavarro (Sister Sanghamitta) (1849-1933) formerly the wife of the Portuguese ambassador to Sandwich Islands, and the first woman to convert to Buddhism on American soil (in 1897).

Phelps and Sanghamitta visited `Abdu'l-Bahā in ‘Akkā and stayed with "the Master" for over a month, questioning him extensively. Except for a brief incident wherein Sanghamitta got extremely irritated and vocal with a translator, the visit was cordial and fruitful and resulted in Phelps's biography of `Abdu'l-Bahā (dedicated to M.A. de S. Canavarro). The work has been well-known among Bahā'īs for nearly a century, and is especially popular for its precious documentation of recollections by Bahiyyih Khánum, "The Greatest Holy Leaf"—but it is not regarded as authoritative since it's colored by Phelps's opinions which divert from `Abdu'l-Bahā's.

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