New Hampshire
Mary Baker Eddy
(1821-1910)
Mary Baker was born in Bow, New Hampshire in 1821.
She was very sick as a child and was unable to attend school, so she was
educated at home by her older brother. At
a young age, she began publishing her own poetry in periodicals.
As an adult, she remained ill until meeting Dr. Phineas Quimby, who introduced
her to mental healing. Mary
believed that the cause and cure of all diseases are mental, which led to the
founding of the Christian Science Publishing Company.
She then published her beliefs in a book entitled Science and Health.
She also founded and became the editor of the Journal of Christian
Science. In 1879, the First
Church of Christ, Scientist was formally chartered and Mary served as the head.
She taught hundreds of students, mostly female, to spread the word about
Christian Science and to recruit new members.
Mary Baker Eddy was the only American woman to found a lasting American-based
religion. She has won 6 Pulitzer
Prizes for her publications and her Science and Health was voted “one
of the 75 books by women whose words have changed the world” by the National
Women’s Book Association. In
1995, Mary Baker Eddy was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame for
“making an indelible mark on society, religion, and journalism.”
For more information on Mary Baker Eddy, you can visit the following websites:
