My first blog entry is prompted by an assignment in Dr. Thomas
Shepherd’s "The
Life and Work of Myrtle Fillmore" class.
My task is to write what I know about Myrtle Fillmore and her healing, without
looking at any other sources outside myself. This is my first blog for the
class. At the end of the course, I am
looking forward to looking back to this first post to compare my original
thoughts and assumptions with what I learned about her life and work through
class. So here we go with Beth’s pre-class version of Myrtle Fillmore:
Myrtle Fillmore was
born into a strong Methodist family. Her
family was strict, adamant faithful supporters of the Methodist faith. Myrtle, however,
had her doubts about the Wesleyan teachings. The young Myrtle Page could never
accept the church’s doctrines of sin and eternal damnation.
Myrtle was sickly as a child. She was told by her family
that she had inherited illness from birth and grew up believing sickness was an
inevitable part of who she was. Doctors concurred with her family’s proclamation
of chronic illness. It is said she
suffered with tuberculosis.
Myrtle loved to read and was highly educated. She grew up
and went to college, a rare occurrence for women in the mid to late 1800’s. Upon graduation, she went on to become a
teacher, I believe, in Texas. Myrtle enjoyed working with children and was very
active in her local Methodist Church community. On the top of my head, I can’t
recall the city, but I believe it was somewhere outside the
Dallas area. (I used to live in Lufkin, Texas, and when I read her history a few years
ago, I remember thinking that Myrtle lived just a few hours down the road). While in Texas, she met and married Charles Fillmore.
Soon after they married, Myrtle became sick again.
Shortly after, Myrtle heard atteneded a healing service that was being held by
a minister named E.B Week. Dr. Weeks was
a student of either Mary Baker Eddy, or Emma Curtis Thompson, without looking
it up, I’m not sure which, but Mary Baker Eddy is the predominant name sticking in my mind. At that service, Myrtle heard words that changed her life, “I
am a child of God, and I do not inherit sickness.” To a woman who was told she
was destined for chronic illness and raised in a tradition that taught we were
born in sin, the words were enlightening, ringing with Truth. His statement sparked a passion
in Myrtle that would change her life, and those around her. It is interesting
to note, that while Myrtle’s life was changed by the words, the same words were
heard by Charles Fillmore and had no apparent impact on him at the time.
Myrtle hid Dr. Week’s words in her heart. She began
searching the bible seeking understanding, and speaking words of Truth into
every part of her body. In two years,
Myrtle was healed. Not only did she heal herself, Myrtle began using the
techniques she learned to help heal others. People sought out Myrtle--drawn in by her effective, healing
prayers.
Initially, Charles Fillmore was disinterested in Myrtle’s
experience with Dr. Weeks, but after witnessing his wife's healing, and those she touched,
he, too, began his own personal quest for wholeness and healing. This was how
the Unity movement began.
That was clever--stating the assignment up front. My guess is we're going to see a huge difference in the kind of posts we start with compared to where we end up. Reading the blogs has stimulated my curiosity about the process AND the destination. Your 'impressions' about Myrtle remind me of the stories in my family about this aunt and that uncle or what happened to dad in the army. They're passed on, repeated and handed down without anyone checking facts or sources. I don't yet know much about Myrtle, only the oft-told family stories. But I guess that's the nature of 'myth,' -- it's all true, but only in a certain way. Meanwhile, what we think we know about her is totally true since it's our own creation story. Our stories about Myrtle form the understanding of what we want to believe about ourselves.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is the second (that I've read so far) that brought up the 2-year time period that Myrtle invested in her healing. On top of that, I recall she devoted something like eight hours a day to the process. That is faith! She apparently believed so strongly that she'd eventually be healed that she'd keep at it until it was done.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you brought in Myrtle's Texas time period, and you explained how she liked to teach. Maybe that is why the Fillmores started out not wanting to found a church--- but rather a school instead.
ReplyDeleteWhen we look at Myrtle's life story, it is easy to see how she was always "the teacher" and how she possessed a deep interest in the education of children. She, herself, was an avid student and wanted to keep that flame alive within the young people she taught. That same "keeping the flame alive" transferred eventually to the adults she encountered, teaching them the Truth lessons of healing she had experienced herself. Thank you for a lovely share, Beth.
ReplyDeleteGreat factual synopsis of Myrtle. How great that you lived right down the road from Myrtle in Texas and now you walk the grounds on which she did her work. Love it! Would have been wonderful to have met Ms. Myrtle.
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