Marceil DeLacy will deliver a talk about healer, educator and writer Mary Baker Eddy’s life and legacy Tuesday from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Kiva Lecture Hall.
DeLacy’s talk is part of an exhibit about Eddy that is on the second floor of the Student Services Center. DeLacy will speak about Eddy’s contributions as a pioneer in the mid-1800s when men controlled virtually every institution outside the home. She will discuss Baker’s role as a leader and her belief in faith-based healing.
Eddy was in a debilitating accident in 1868, a time when women were considered weak and prone to illness. They also endured harsh treatments to combat illnesses that generally only made them worse. She sought relief in homeopathic and alternative treatments, and her unexpected recovery prompted her to re-examine faith-based healing.
She wrote “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” shortly after her recovery.
She then worked as a public speaker and drew crowds in cities such as Boston and Chicago at a time when women were restrained from speaking in public. She was the president and founder of a college that trained women and men in the practice of faith-based healing.
After being shunned by her church for speaking freely, Eddy founded a new church where she was a pastor and women participated as equals with men at all levels of ministry and government. Shortly before she died, she founded the Christian Science Monitor.
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The Eddy exhibit is sponsored by the National Park Service and is spending July and August on campus as part of its Southwest tour. The campus exhibition is co-sponsored by the Women’s Studies Department and Women’s Resource Center.
“The group that is responsible for the writings of Mary Baker Eddy basically called Women’s Studies and asked if UNM would be interested in bringing the exhibit on campus and we agreed,” said Elizabeth Cahn, program services coordinator at the Women’s Resource Center. “It took us awhile to figure out where to put it with the Student Union Building under renovation, but we are happy that it is in such a prominent location on the second floor of the Student Services Center. Even though the exhibit is running while most students are gone for the summer, a lot of people have seen and will get to see it this month.”
Cahn said she and her peers at the Women’s Resource Center didn’t know much about Eddy before the exhibit, which made it even more important to bring on campus.
“She’s a very interesting person who dealt with a lot of struggles in her time,” Cahn said. “I think what I was really impressed with was that she was really very gifted in the public realm and was able to make a difference by putting her leadership skills to good use.”
Cahn said that while Eddy was an 18th century woman, she found her struggle to speak her mind a common theme for today’s women.
“Look at Hillary Clinton and the struggle she went through, and really still deals with, to speak her mind,” Cahn said. “She wanted to contribute through public service, but was largely shunned. It’s just amazing when you see how hard it is now, and I can’t begin to imagine what it was like for pioneers like Mary Baker Eddy.”
DeLacy is an internationally-known speaker on spirituality, health and women’s issues. She has lectured at Harvard University, Tufts University, University of Chicago and Boston University. Her work has been published numerous times in periodicals including the Christian Science Monitor.
Cheryl Learn, director of the Women’s Studies Program, will introduce DeLacy.
“I took a real interest in this as a former nurse because of the associations with faith-based healing,” she said. “I think it will be a wonderful lecture and am glad we were able to introduce this exhibit to the UNM community.”
