Eddy, Mary Baker (1821-1910)

US founder of the Christian Science movement. Her pamphlet Science of Man (1869) was followed by Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875), which systematically set forth the basis of Christian Science.

Separated from her husband and in poor health, she discovered in 1862 the work of a faith healer named Phineas Quimby, who decisively influenced her belief in healing through divine grace, a belief enhanced by her own recovery.

She was born in New Hampshire and brought up as a Congregationalist. She founded the Christian Science Association 1876. In 1879 the Church of Christ, Scientist, was established, and although living in retirement after 1892, she continued to direct the activities of the movement until her death.