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In 1919, in the wake of the upheaval of World War I, a remarkable group of English women came up with their own solution to the world's grief: a new religion. At the heart of the Panacea Society was a charismatic and autocratic leader, a vicar's widow named Mabel Bartlrop. Her followers called her Octavia, and they believed that she was the daughter of God, sent to build the New Jerusalem in Bedford.When the last living members of the Panacea Society revealed to historian Jane Shaw their immense and painstakingly preserved archives, she began to reconstruct the story of a close-knit utopian community that grew to include seventy residents, thousands of followers, and an international healing ministry reaching 130,000 people. Shaw offers a detailed portrait of Octavia and describes the faith of her devoted followers who believed they would never die. Vividly told, by turns funny and tragic, Octavia, Daughter of God is about a moment at the advent of modernity, when a generation of newly empowered women tried to re-make Christianity in their own image, offering a fascinating window into the anxieties and hopes of the interwar years.… (more)
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Founded by Mabel
And yet, practising clergymen got into it. The healing work- despatching squares of linen on which Olivia had breathed (to be placed in water and drunk) all over the globe attracted thousands of applicants.
Mabel had spent time in an asylum ; her spinster daughter who remained in the religion was similarly affected (Mabe''s sons got well away and moved abroad.) Focussing intently on "signs" - from the weather to political events- she sought to interpret everything with reference to the Scriptures. Perhaps Octavia's entire career could be dismissed in the Biblical admonishment not to "lean on one's own understanding."
The author draws social events into her explanation for the sect: the growth in mystical/ millenarial beliefs in the trauma inflicted by WW1; the almost "support group" cfeelof the whole thing, undoubtedly attracting some members; the feminist slant (ex-suffragettes were among the recruits.) But, too, in a changing world, a sense of stability, conservative values, chastity, nostalgia...
Concluding, she comments: "I hope she would be pleased with this account of the community she built, but I now know her well enough to realise she would want to edit it."
One quote from Octavia will long remain with me....one has a sort of sneaking regard for anyone who can confidently proclaim: "I regard advive when it is opposed to my vision as being from the devil!"
Fascinating.