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LifeMary Baker Eddy, the youngest of the six children of Abigail and Mark Baker, was born in Bow, New Hampshire.[1] Although she was raised a Congregationalist, she rejected teachings such as predestination. She suffered chronic illness and developed a strong interest in the biblical accounts of early Christian healing. On December 10 1843, she married George Washington Glover. He died on June 27 1844, a little over two months before the birth of their only child, George Washington Glover, Jr. Eddy married Dr. Daniel Patterson, a dentist, on June 21, 1853. In the 1850s and 1860s she explored homeopathy and other alternative healing methods popular in the United States at that time.
After a severe fall caused a major spinal injury in Lynn, Massachusetts in February 1866, Eddy turned to the Bible and recovered unexpectedly. Despite this unexpected recovery, however, she still tried to claim money from the city for her injury on the grounds that she was ‘still suffering from the effects of that fall’.[2] She devoted the next three years of her life to biblical study and the development of Christian Science. Convinced that illness was an illusion that could be healed through a clearer perception of God, she began teaching her theory of healing to others. She felt that she had discovered a positive rule or Principle of healing in a new understanding of God as divine Principle and infinite Spirit beyond the limitations of the material sense of reality she termed error. Christian Science, as a theological and metaphysical system, was essentially different from Quimby's beliefs and practices. Foundation and building of her churchIn 1875, Eddy published her beliefs in a book entitled "Science and Health" (years later retitled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures), which she called the textbook of Christian Science. The first publication run was one thousand copies, which she self-published. In it she claimed "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science" (p. 107). Eddy devoted the rest of her life to the establishment of the church, writing its bylaws, "The Manual of The Mother Church," and revising "Science and Health." While Eddy was a highly controversial religious leader, author, and lecturer, thousands of people flocked to her teachings. She was supported by the approximately 800 students she had taught at her Massachusetts Metaphysical College in Boston, Massachusetts between the years 1882 and 1889. These students spread across the country practicing healing in accordance with Eddy's teachings. Eddy authorized these students to list themselves as Christian Science Practitioners in the church's periodical, the Christian Science Journal.
In 1921, on the 100th anniversary of Eddy's birth, a 100-ton, eleven-foot granite pyramid was dedicated on the site of her birthplace in Bow, New Hampshire. A gift from the Freemasons, it was later dynamited by order of the church's board of directors[citation needed]. Also demolished was Eddy's former home in Pleasant View, as the board feared that it was becoming a place of pilgrimage. Although Eddy cultivated personal praise in her lifetime for various reasons, including for publicity and fundraising, the church claims to shun both the cult of personality and religious reliquaries.
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