a pilgrimage to visit the head of the Baháʼí religion ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. May arrived in Acre in February 1899. She wrote of the first time she met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as "of that first meeting I can remember neither joy nor pain nor anything that I can name". As a Baháʼí May returned to Paris and began teaching her new faith and played a significant role in introducing the religion to several people while in Paris. She helped convert several new believers, including Charles Mason Remey, Hippolyte Dreyfus, Laura Barney (Dreyfus), Englishman Thomas Breakwell and Juliet Thompson. On her return five of the younger female pilgrims had a photograph commissioned and sent to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. On receiving the photograph he wrote a tablet addressed to the five, whom he named the "Five Holy Leaves". She met a close friend of her brother's, William Sutherland Maxwell, a Canadian of Scottish background, and the two married in 1902 in London. William had been introduced to the religion before their marriage but he did not become a Baháʼí until 1909, after meeting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. The couple had one child, a daughter named Mary. The couple moved to Montreal, and May set up a Baháʼí center in her home. Prior to 1912, she supported a Children's Court for Montreal, and her efforts were chief in maintaining the Colborne Street Milk Station. In about 1914, she brought a Montessori teacher from New York to their home in Montreal to start the first school of this type in Canada. In Montreal May continued to convert people such as Arthur Armstrong, Rose Henderson and her husband's cousin Martha MacBean. In 1912 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá visited Canada and stayed with the Maxwells. She was an early participant at Green Acre, the first Baháʼí training facility in the United States. In 1927 she was a member of the US and Canada National Spiritual Assembly. In 1937, her life changed dramatically after her daughter, Mary, was married to Shoghi Effendi, then head of the Baháʼí Faith. Death Despite poor health, on January 24, 1940 May chose to leave New York on a steamship to Brazil, ultimately to land in Argentina to teach the Faith with her niece, Jeanne Bolles. She arrived in Buenos Aires on February 27 with elation; however on March 1, May died of a heart attack. Shoghi Effendi gave her the status of martyr and cabled the following: "ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's beloved handmaid, distinguished disciple May