Third Guardian of Bahai Faith - Joel Bray Marangella
In 1965, Joel Bray Marangella
became the Third Guardian of the Faith, having been appointed by Mason
Remey as his successor both in a hand-written letter and through his
appointment of him as the President of the Second International Bahá'í
Council (the embryonic Universal House of Justice of which only the
Guardian is the authorized legitimate head). He born on September 22, 1918 in Lynn,
Massachusetts, to his parents Phillip Amalfi Marangella and Edith Brooks
Guthrie Marangella, both of whom enrolled as Bahá'ís when Joel was a baby. He
resided in many of the major cities of the United States and participated both
in the spiritual and administrative activities of their various Bahá'í
communities. He married Irene, also a Bahá'í, in 1945, and five years later
they answered the call of Shoghi Effendi (the first Guardian of the Faith) for
pioneers to go to Europe to help spread the Faith and spent eighteen years in
France. In 1954, the Hands of the Cause appointed Joel as an Auxiliary Board
Member for the propagation of the Faith. He participated in the formation of
the first National Spiritual Assembly of France in May 1958 becoming its
first President and again following its two successive elections.
After leaving France in 1968, Joel
lived successively in Germany, Switzerland and Australia before his return to
the United States in March of 2010. Joel Bray Marangella is recognized by
Orthodox Bahá'ís as the third Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, the authorized
interpreter of the Bahá'í Writings and the president and sacred head for life
of the Universal House of Justice (provisionally named, in its embryonic form,
as the International Bahá'í Council of the Orthodox Bahá'ís).
A. Parikh,
Secretary,
National Baha’i Council of (Orthodox Baha’is) of India,
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