02/02/2026
WHAT'S THE SCIENCE IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?
A Christian Science nurse is someone who can support a person's healing journey with application of the science of spiritual understanding and with practical physical care. The HOUSTON VISITING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE NURSE SERVICE shares the following historical look at Mary Baker Eddy's experience leading to her recognition of what she eventually called Christian Science.
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Mrs. Patterson’s healing
On February 1st, 160 years ago to the day, Mary Baker Patterson fell on the ice in the town of Lynn, Massachusetts, and was badly injured. The incident set off a chain of events that resulted in her discovery of the Science of Christ healing and her founding of the Christian Science church, not to mention her divorce from philanderer Daniel Patterson and her eventual marriage to one of her first Christian Science students, Asa Gilbert Eddy. Below, two biographers of Mary Baker Eddy recount aspects of the “accident” on a slippery New England street that literally led to the worldwide reestablishment of primitive Christianity.
“On Saturday morning, February 3, 1866, readers of the Lynn Weekly Reporter were met by the following news item:
Mrs. Mary M. Patterson, of Swampscott, fell upon the ice near the corner of Market and Oxford streets, on Thursday evening, and was severely injured. She was taken up in an insensible condition and carried into the residence of S. M. Bubier, Esq., near by, where she was kindly cared for during the night. Dr. Cushing, who was called, found her injuries to be internal, and of a severe nature, inducing spasms and internal suffering. She was removed to her home in Swampscott yesterday afternoon, though in a very critical condition.
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“Certain facts are agreed to by all parties. The then Mrs. Mary Patterson, in the company of some friends, was on her way to a meeting of the Linwood Lodge of the Good Templars when she slipped on the ice just outside the Bubier house in the center of Lynn, hit her head, and was knocked unconscious. She was sheltered for the night by Mr. and Mrs. Bubier who called in the busy, popular young homeopathic doctor and surgeon Alvin M. Cushing. The doctor paid her two visits that first night, which indicates that he considered the accident serious, and he returned to examine Mrs. Patterson again the next morning. At this point, even though she was complaining of terrible back pain and was clearly disoriented and in great distress, Mrs. Patterson insisted on being taken home, and Cushing arranged for two hired men to move her on a long sleigh, assuring her warmth with fur robes. Two neighborhood women, Mrs. Carrie Millett and Mrs. Mary Wheeler, took charge of caring for Mrs. Patterson at home since her husband was out of town.”
— Mary Baker Eddy, by Gillian Gill, pp. 161–162
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“On the third morning after the accident, a Sunday, Mary’s pastor visited her. She asked him to return in the afternoon. He said he would, even though he didn’t expect her to live that long. When he had gone, she asked those attending to leave her for a while. Mary felt totally alone, bereft of all human aid. Her husband was absent, away on a trip to New Hampshire. There was no person left to whom she could turn for help. But Mary knew God to be ‘a very present help in trouble,’ so she turned to her Bible. In early editions of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy stated that she read from the third chapter of Mark: . . where our Master healed the withered hand on the Sabbath day. As we read, the change passed over us; the limbs that were immoveable, cold, and without feeling, warmed; the internal agony ceased, our strength came instantaneously, and we rose from our bed and stood upon our feet, well.
“Mary dressed and walked into the next room to the utter astonishment of those who had given up hope of her recovery. When she greeted her pastor at the door that afternoon, he thought he was seeing an apparition. The doctor was sent for, but he could only express his incredulity at her improvement. When she told him she had not taken any of the medicine he had left, his disbelief seemed to strike her, and she felt suddenly weakened and could no longer stand. She described this in an interview she gave many years later:
He said, “How was this done?” I said, “I cannot tell you in any wise whatever, except it seemed to me all a thing or state of my mental consciousness.” When I awakened to this sense of change, I was there, that is all I know. It came to me in a bit of Scripture, that is now absent from my thought, and I immediately arose from my bed, and before that, my feet were dead, and they kept something to heat them, for fear they were be stiff utterly, and it seemed to me as I talked to him that I was a little weakened, and finally there was another one came in, and it seemed that while I was talking with him that I was more weakened, and he said, “It is impossible that that could have been. It must have been the medicine.” I said, “Your medicine is every bit in the drawer, go and look.” There it was in my drawer, and I had not taken one bit of it. When I showed him that, he said, “That is impossible,” and immediately I felt I was back again, and I staggered. He caught me and set me in my chair, and he said, “There, I will go out. If you have done that much, you can again.” My limbs crippled under me just like that. . . . When I found myself back again, I felt more discouraged than ever.
“After the doctor left, Mary again turned to her Bible. From the ninth chapter of Matthew—the healing of the palsied man confined to his bed—Jesus’ words ‘Arise, and walk’ spoke to her across the centuries. Again she arose in strength, and the relapse ended.”
— Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, by Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, pp. 56–58
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“After receiving the full revelation of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy would write:
The physician must know himself and understand the mental state of his patient. . . . ‘Cast the beam out of thine own eye.’ Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike ‘the anointed,’ and cast it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient’s mind that makes his body sick, and remove it, and rest like the dove from the deluge.”
“And so the revelation of Christian Science would move her far beyond material methods as having anything to do with the healing process. Ultimately, she would conclude that the laws of healing rested in divine Mind as the sole physician in every case.”
— Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, by Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, p. 44
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Lovingly,
The HVCSNS Board of Directors and our Journal-listed Christian Science nurse, Susie Petersen
HVCSNS 24/7 cell phone: 713.304.8384
