Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science nurse

1908. What an eventful year for Mary Baker Eddy! In late January she had moved from Concord, New Hampshire, her home for nearly two decades, to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Now she could more easily keep in regular contact with the Christian Science Board of Directors and other officers of her Church who were working on important projects. Communications flowed regularly between her household and Church offices in the Back Bay of Boston.

So why, completely out of the blue, did Mrs. Eddy send this note to the Directors?

Beloved Brethren:

Please vote on the adoption of the following Church By-law, and if adopted publish in our periodicals and in the Church Manual:—

ARTICLE VIII.

Christian Science Nurse. Sect. 31. A member of The Mother Church who represents himself or herself as a Christian Science nurse shall be one who has a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice, who thoroughly understands the practical wisdom necessary in a sick room, and who can take proper care of the sick.

The cards of such persons may be inserted in The Christian Science Journal under rules established by the publishers.

[Signed] Mary B G Eddy

The archivists caring for the collections relating to Mary Baker Eddy and the early history of the Christian Science movement have been asked this “Why?” question a number of times over the years. Unfortunately, our basic answer has been rather simple: We don’t know.

Recently, this question came up again for the centennial of the Christian Science Nurse By-Law. The time had come to take a new perspective on this mystery. Or was it a mystery? It’s certainly true that November 16, 1908, was not an expected time for the appearance of this definition of the role of nursing in Christian Science healing. It occurred about ten days before The Christian Science Publishing Society launched a new publication, a daily newspaper! How could Mrs. Eddy have been thinking about anything except The Christian Science Monitor?

Not that Mary Baker Eddy had never made mention of nurses or nursing. The third edition of her lifework, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, in the chapter “Healing the Sick,” stated rather bluntly: “A cross or complaining nurse should never take charge of the sick.” Mrs. Eddy wrote this statement in Science and Health in 1881, a time when there were few Christian Scientists and even fewer Christian Science practitioners! By 1902, the statement appeared in a form very similar to its present wording in Science and Health, although the words “deceitful” and “patient” were not added until the end of 1907, about a year before the By-Law was written.

Going back then to November 1908, I was surprised to find that Mary Baker Eddy was thinking about many diverse issues at this time, only one of which was the Monitor. As I examined Mrs. Eddy’s correspondence both before and after the writing of the By-Law “Christian Science Nurse,” I saw that in late 1908, she was looking to the future, ensuring that the foundations for her movement were strong and durable. She was taking care of quite a few large and small issues. For example:

November 14: Mrs. Eddy finally decided that she would no longer have any contact with her adopted son, Ebenezer Foster-Eddy. Their relationship had become more and more strained over the years. In 1907, he had taken part in the persecution known as the Next Friends suit. This lawsuit challenged her to prove her mental competence (which she did).

November 14: She ordered the closing of the “Mother’s Room.” This room in the Original Edifice of The Mother Church, designed for her personal use whenever she visited the church, had been open for regular tours for a number of years. Mrs. Eddy felt uneasy about the role of this room as a kind of tourist attraction, feeling that it could suggest or even promote worship of her personally.

November 16: Mrs. Eddy dictated the Christian Science Nurse By-Law to her secretary, Adam H. Dickey. Apparently, the Board of Directors received a typed copy later that same day. The Directors approved the By-Law the next day.

November 18: Allison V. Stewart, her publisher, wrote, explaining that since all of her books were now set in the same typeface and used the same size page, this was the time for all her paperback publications to take on a similarly uniform appearance.

November 25: The first issue of the Monitor was published, the fulfillment of her long-standing desire for a Christian Science presence in the world of journalism.

The Christian Science Nurse By-Law quickly appeared in The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel (in the November 21 issue, less than a week after it was written), and by mid-December the By-Law was published in the 75th edition of the Manual of The Mother Church, in the “Discipline” section, under Article VIII, “Guidance of Members.” The responses to this provision from Christian Scientists must have been quite rapid, for by February 1909, five individuals were advertising in the Journal as Christian Science nurses.

We may never know if an event, or a letter, or a conversation, impelled Mary Baker Eddy to write “Christian Science Nurse” in mid-November 1908. But surely this By-Law is the culmination of Mrs. Eddy’s long record of compassionate caring for others and of her desire to provide her movement with every tool needed to protect and safeguard Christian Science healing. And that is well worth celebrating!

Judy Huenneke is senior research archivist at The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston.

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