Josephine Curtis Woodbury (1849-1930) became interested in Christian Science in about 1880. In 1884, 1886, and 1888 Woodbury took classes with Eddy. In the latter half of the 1880s she was involved in church work in Boston, assisting for a time in editing The Christian Science Journal, and in 1886 establishing her own "institute" for teaching Christian Science. In June 1890, Woodbury bore a child and declared she had been unaware of the pregnancy. Having told her students that she had abstained from marital relations with her husband for some years prior to this event, she explained that the baby, the "Prince of Peace," was the result of an immaculate conception. In actuality she had been having an affair with a man in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. While Eddy attempted to maintain a civil relationship with her, Woodbury became more and more hostile, publishing highly critical attacks on Eddy. In 1899, Woodbury filed a libel suit; this was dismissed in 1901. By 1909 Woodbury had moved to England and devoted the rest of her life to vilifying Eddy and Christian Science.

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