- 1899-04-00 — After May Bolles returned from pilgrimage in 1899 she was the lone Bahá'í in Paris but soon established the first Bahá'í group on the European continent. The list of those who enrolled in the Faith before 1902 include:
Edith MacKaye (the first to believe), and by the New Year of 1900, Charles Mason Remey and Herbert Hopper were next to follow. Then came Marie Squires (Hopper), Helen Ellis Cole, Laura Barney, Mme. Jackson, Agnes Alexander, Thomas Breakwell, Edith Sanderson, and Hippolyte Dreyfus, the first French Bahá'í. Emogene Hoagg and Mrs. Conner had come to Paris in 1900 from America, Sigurd Russell at fifteen years old returned from 'Akká a believer, and in 1901, the group was further reinforced by Juliet Thompson, Lillian James, and "the frequent passing through Paris of pilgrims from America going to the Master . . . and then again returning from the Holy Land." These are but a few, for "in 1901 and 1902 the Paris group of Bahá'ís numbered between twenty-five and thirty people with May Bolles as spiritual guide and teacher. [BW8p634; BFA2:151–2, 154–5; GBP259-26/a>; AB159; BBRSM106; SBBH1:93]
- 1911-08-27 — 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His party took a ferry to Vevey, a resort town on the other side of Lake Geneva (Lake Leman). Vevey was the location of the Dreyfus summer home and it was near here that Lady Blomfield and her daughters finalized the translation of Paris Talks [ABF33-44, DJT186, SoW vol 2 no 14]
- He took a room at the Park Hôtel Mooser where He took some rest and also met Edith Sanderson and her mother. With the assembled friends He discussed immortality and divorce.
- The party returned by ferry to Thonon-les-Bains, stopping at Évian-les-Bains. [DJT196-197]
- In the afternoon He met with Lillian Frances Kappes and Elizabeth Harnill Stewart who had just arrived from America on their way to teach at the Tarbiyát School for girls in Iran. The school for boys had been in operation since 1897 and the school for girls was just being established in 1911 after the arrival of Dr Susan Moody. [ABF43, SoW vol 2 no 18, SoW vol 2 no 14] Perhaps it was at this time He delivered the talk that has been entitled, "The oneness of humanity and of religions". ['Abdu'l-Bahá Speaks]
- 1911-10-05 — 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave a talk at 46, avenue de Malakoff (today avenue Raymond Poincaré) at the home of Edith Sanderson and her mother Margaret Sanderson. [ABF62; The Holy Spirit is the source of Life]
- 1939-02-28 —
The passing of Louis Alphonse Daniel Nicolas, signing A.L.M. Nicolas , (b. March 27 , 1864 in Rasht, Iran) in Paris. He was an historian and French orientalist, official interpreter of the Legation French abroad, and France's consul general in Tabriz.
After reading Gobineau's Trois ans en Asie, 1855-1858 he checked all the information Gobineau had written in his book, corrected some of it, and then began to translate the writings of the Báb. Attracted by this young doctrine, he converted to Bábism and thus became the first Western Bábí. He was the first to translate works of the Báb into French: The Arabic Bayán and the Persian Bayán, and wrote various works, including Seyyed Ali Mohamed dit le Báb (1905), an Essai sur le Chéikhisme (1911) and several articles in newspapers such as Review of the Muslim World. Nicolas became knight of the Legion of Honour in 1909.
- Moojan Momen says of him, "No European scholar has contributed so much to our knowledge of the life and teachings of the Báb as Nicholas. His study of the life of the Báb and his translations of several of the most important books of the Báb remain of unsurpassed value." [BBR36]
- His important collection of manuscripts were auctioned and the items relevant to the Bahá'í and Bábí Faiths were purchased by the Bahá'í World Centre.
- See BW8p885-887 for An Interview with A. L. M. Nicolas of Paris by Edith Sanderson.
- See a short biography by Nader Nasiri Moghaddam in Encyclopaedia Iranica Online.
- A chronological list of his publications:
- Le Livre des Sept Preuves [Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih translated from Persian into French], Paris, 1902, 68 pp.
- A propos de deux manuscrits 'Bábís' de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Paris, volume 47, 1903, pp. 58-73
- Le Béyan Arabe [Bayán al-'arabiyya translated from Arabic into French], Paris, 1905, 235 pp.
- Seyyed Ali Mohammed dit le Báb [biography of the Báb, selections translated into English in this volume], Paris, 1905, 458 pp.
- En Perse: Constitution [translation by A.L.M. Nicolas], Revue du Monde Musulman, Paris, volume 1, 1907 (décembre 1906), p. 86-100
- Sur la Volonté Primitive et l'Essence Divine d'après le Báb, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Paris, volume 55, 1907, pp. 208-212
- Essais sur le Chéïkhisme, 4 volumes :
- Cheïkh Ahmed Lahçahi, Paris, volume 1, 1910
- Séyyèd Kazem Rechti, Paris, volume 2, 1914
- Le Chéïkhisme. La Doctine, Paris, volume 3, 1911 [extract from Revue du Monde Musulman]
- La Science de Dieu, Paris, volume 4, 1911
- Le Club de la fraternité [translation of an article by Atrpet by A.L.M. Nicolas], Revue du Monde Musulman, Paris, volume 13, 1911, pp. 180-184
- Le Dossier russo-anglais de Seyyed Ali Mohammed dit le Báb, Revue du Monde Musulman, Paris, volume 14, 1911, pp. 357-363
- Le Béyan Persan [Bayán-i-fársí translated from Persian into French], four volumes, 1911-1914
- Abdoul-Béha et la situation, Revue du Monde Musulman, Paris, volume 21, 1912, pp. 261-267
- Le Béhahis et le Báb, Journal Asiatique, Paris, volume 222, 1933, pp. 257-264
- Qui est le successeur du Báb? Paris, 1933, 16 pp.
- Quelques Documents relatifs au Babisme, Journal Asiatique, Paris, volume 224, 1934, pp. 107-142
- Le Báb astronome, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Paris, volume 114, 1936, pp. 99-101
- Massacres de Babis en Perse, Paris, 1936, 42 pp.
[A Short Biography of A. L. M. Nicholas by Peter Terry 2008]
- 1956-05-20 —
Louisa Mathew Gregory, (b. 1 February 1866 in Penge, Kent, England) whose wedding to Hand of the Cause of God Louis Gregory in 1912 was the first interracial western Bahá'í marriage, passed away in Eliot, Maine. [BW13:878; SYH19, 239]
- She had been introduced to the Faith by Edith Sanderson in Paris in about December of 1909. Edith had been taught by May Maxwell in 1902. [SYH5, 206]
- For her obituary see BW13:376–8. Error in this article
- There was no Bahá'í Congress in Prague in 1928
- She did not attend Cambridge but rather the examination for her credentials were administered by Cambridge.
- 'Abdu'l-Bahá did not attend her marriage on the 27 September 1912. He was in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. [SYHvii-viii; 28]
- Her biography, A Seed in Your Heart - The Life of Louise Mathew Gregory by Janet Fleming Rose was published by George Ronald in 2018.
- See a brief biography in The Bahá'í Community of the British Isles 1844-1963 p462-464 and for the story of his learning of the Faith, p453-454
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