PLAY PODCASTS
A Victorian cult: inside the strange world of the Agapemone
Episode 2150

A Victorian cult: inside the strange world of the Agapemone

Stuart Flinders takes listeners inside the Agapemone – a Victorian Christian cult presided over by rogue Anglican priests

HistoryExtra podcast · Immediate

November 27, 202436m 17s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (podtrac.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

In the 1840s, a strange, secretive community known as the Agapemonites set up camp in Spaxton, Somerset. Presided over by a rogue Anglican priest who believed he had a hotline to god, this religious cult attracted wealthy members in search of a deeper connection to the Lord. But once they had handed over their worldy possessions in order to join, the Agapemonites found it was rather harder to leave. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Stuart Flinders explores their story, from triple marriages and spiritual wives, to financial exploitation and suicide.


(Ad) Stuart Flinders is the author of A Very British Cult: Rogue Priests and the Abode of Love (Icon Books, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Very-British-Cult-Rogue-Priests/dp/1837731470/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty.


Hear Stephen Talty tell the story of the 1993 Waco siege, a standoff between a religious cult and the FBI:https://link.chtbl.com/cIi5wFEw.


The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices