ENERGIA. PASSIONE.Two words that only begin to describe Erika Meyer Radivo, a 46-year branch church member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Milan, Italy, who in the last five years has distributed throughout her country more copies of Science and Health than she can count. Meyer dubs her green mini-van "a sort of flying Reading Room," and adds, with true Italian fervor, "We can't just wait for people to come to us!"
Attending The Mother Church's Annual Meeting in 2002, Meyer ventured upon the book In My True Light and Life, a collection of previously unpublished material by and about Mary Baker Eddy, and found just the message she needed: "In a letter Mary Baker Eddy wrote to one of her students, she wrote, 'Science and Health as revised is the Teacher and healer that every one needs. The best thing you can do for our Cause is to circulate that book' '' (p. 416).
Logging thousands of miles a year on metropolitan autostradas as well as remote mountain roads in the Alps, Meyer packs roughly 250 books for each trip—and sets off to book fairs and cultural festivals near and far. She scours ads in newspapers to find where events are scheduled, and then gets support from fellow volunteers in Christian Science branch churches around Italy—support she says she couldn't do without, given the scope of her mission. Events include the Festival of Literature in Mantova, the Festival of Philosophy in Modena, the Festival of the Middle Ages in Parma, the Festival of Science in Genova, and an activity Meyer regularly attends, the Turin Book Fair, the largest of its kind in the world. Some events take place in Palazzi (ancient public edifices), others in the midst of city squares framed by medieval churches and castles dating back to the 1400s. The Turin Book Fair is a rarity—a modern venue held in a vast, renovated car factory that accommodates thousands of exhibitors.
