It all began with Myrtle Fillmore, who along with her husband, Charles, is usually listed as a co-founder of Unity. In my opinion, however, Myrtle was the mother of the Unity movement.  She is a perfect example of an expression of divine feminine energy. The divine feminine is receptive and nurturing. It is the energy expressed during creation.  

Charles Fillmore more fully expressed the masculine energy. His was the assertive, orderly energy that led him to study world religions, establish classes, write books and organize the church.

Mary Caroline Page—she took the nickname Myrtle as a girl—was told from birth that she had inherited her family’s “weak chest.” After teaching school for a few years, Myrtle spent a year in Denison, Texas, recovering from tuberculosis. While she was there, she met and later married Charles Fillmore. Myrtle was nine years older than her husband, and in the late 1800s, that age difference was quite unusual.

Myrtle was by no means a fragile person. She traveled with Charles to Gunnison and then Pueblo, Colorado, both rough mining towns, and the descriptions in her letters to her sister were of housekeeping in mining tents. During this time, she had two sons, Lowell and Rickert. She later gave birth to her third son, Royal, in Kansas City, where Charles had started a real estate business.

When Myrtle’s tuberculosis returned, all her doctors told her she did not have much more time to live. One evening Myrtle and Charles attended a lecture by E. B. Weeks. Charles came away having enjoyed an interesting evening. Myrtle came away totally changed.

The following quote is from her manuscripts and personal papers held by the Unity Library and Archives:

The light of God revealed to us—the thought came to me first—that life was of God, that we were inseparably one with the Source, and that we inherited from the divine and perfect Father. What the revelation did to me at first was not apparent to the senses. But it held my mind above negation, and I began to claim my birthright and to act as though I believed myself the child of God, filled with His life. I gained. Others say that there was something new in me. They asked me to share it. Others were healed, and began to study. My husband continued his business, and at first took little interest in what I was doing. But after a time he became absorbed in the study of Truth, too. We consecrated ourselves to the Lord, and kept doing daily what we felt led to do. We began to prosper, a little at a time, and our health continued to improve.

Here is my understanding of Myrtle’s practice after the lecture: 

She set up a chair for herself and a chair for Jesus. She affirmed that she was a child of God and therefore could not inherit sickness. In her quiet prayer times, she asked each of her organs to forgive her for the abusive and unkind thoughts she had had about them. She asked each organ—her lungs, her heart, her digestive organs—to forgive her for misusing them, and she spent time in gratitude for each part of her body that supported her as she went about her work in this physical world. 

She spent time marveling at the order of this universe and appreciating her part of creation. She celebrated the divine life that circulated in and through her body. She spent time in the silence and found a peace and understanding that was new to her. 

Over time, Myrtle’s tuberculosis disappeared, and she went on to live a long and healthy life. 

As Myrtle worked her process of healing for herself, others noticed the change in her. Neighbors asked her to pray with them about sick children, marriage problems and other concerns. The grocer, meat man, mail carrier and milkman came to her, and miracle after miracle happened. Charles, who had been busy with his real estate business, wanted to understand what was going on. He began his process by making appointments on his business calendar to pray with Jesus and spend time in the silence.

The Fillmores began meeting on Sunday evenings with friends, and they named themselves the Unity Society of Practical Christianity. 

The day before she died—by then she was in her 90s—Myrtle visited most of the workers in her prayer ministry, Silent Unity, and mentioned that she thought she could do more good on the other side. The next day, she reportedly picked apples in the morning, had a picnic in the afternoon, and then stated that she intended to take a nap. During the nap she made a peaceful transition.

Myrtle Fillmore’s greatest gift to the world was Silent Unity, which has been in continuous affirmative prayer for more than 110 years. The idea was born when she began attracting prayer partners: when there were 24 of them willing to hold the silence for an hour each day, Silent Unity began. As more and more requests came in, Myrtle organized partners to pray personally with others and answer letters. 

When the Fillmores started the first Unity Church, on Tracy Street in Kansas City, Silent Unity was on the third floor, next to the nursery. They later moved to Unity Farms, which is now Unity Village. As the years went by, prayer requests began to arrive in the form of letters, phone calls, and then emails. And still today, any time of the day or night, people can call Silent Unity and speak with a living person who will answer their call and pray with them one on one. 

And all this happened because one woman went to a lecture and understood that each of us is a divine child of God and cannot be sick.

Mary Enfinger is a licensed Unity teacher. Unity of Pensacola is located at 716 N. 9th Ave., Pensacola. For more information, call 850-438-2277 or visit UnityPNS.org.