At the beginning of February 1866, Mary Baker Eddy, then Mrs. Daniel Patterson, had fallen on the icy streets of Lynn, Massachusetts. Her sudden recovery from that near fatal accident led her to the discovery of Christian Science, which she understood to be a revelation from God.
Just a few months after her healing, Daniel eloped with another woman, one of his dental patients. The woman's husband pursued them and brought his wife home. Some days after, this woman turned up at Mary's door looking pale and very haggard. Mrs. Eddy, in recounting this episode to Irving Tomlinson years later, said she asked the woman:
For what . . . have you come to me? You, who have robbed me of my good husband and desolated my happy home. You, who have disgraced yourself and your family. . . . She replied, "I came because of what your husband has told me of you. I knew you must be a good woman and I felt you would help me."
