The first seventy-seven years of the preceding century,
constituting the Apostolic and Heroic Age of our Faith, fell into three
distinct epochs, of nine, of thirty-nine and of twenty-nine years' duration,
associated respectively with the Bábí Dispensation and the ministries of
Bahá'u'lláh and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This Primitive Age of the Bahá'í Era,
unapproached in spiritual fecundity by any period associated with the mission
of the Founder of any previous Dispensation, was impregnated, from its
inception to its termination, with the creative energies generated through the
advent of two independent Manifestations and the establishment of a Covenant
unique in the spiritual annals of mankind. - Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated
5 June 1947’; ‘Citadel of Faith: Messages to America 1947-1957’; The
Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, The Significance of the Formative Age of
Our Faith)
