Alexander, Stella Hadden

Christian Science was founded in 1879 in the USA by Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910). Chronic ill-health led her to the charismatic healer Phineas P. Quimby. His suggestive therapeutics led her to believe in the mental nature of her illness. In 1866 she recovered from the effects of an accident while reading about the healings of Jesus in the New Testament. This prompted a period in her life of intense scriptural study and writing, and in 1870 she began teaching and attracting a following in Massachussetts. In 1875 she published Science and health which became the textbook for the study and practice of Christian Science. In 1879, she and a group of followers founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and she instructed at the Massachussetts Metaphysical College chartered by her in 1881. By the end of the 1880s some one hundred congregations had been formed, mostly in the Atlantic states and the Midwest. By 1910 there were more than 1,200. The government of the church was set down in Eddy's Manual of the mother church in 1895. Christian Science is widely known for its international daily newspaper published in Boston, The Christian Science Monitor .