The Panacea Society is a religious group based in Bedford, England. The Society was founded by Mabel Barltrop in 1919 at 12 Albany Road, Bedford. Its inspiration was and is the teachings of the Devonshire prophetess Joanna Southcott (1750 - 1814). Barltrop took the name Octavia and believed herself to be Southcott's child, the Shiloh of her prophecies. With 12 apostles the Society (then called the Community of the Holy Ghost) began.
The Society's headquarters is in Albany Road, close to the remains of Bedford Castle. Another property - an end-of-terrace house in Albany Road (named "The Ark") - is maintained as a residence for The Messiah following upon the second coming.
A central purpose of the Society is to persuade 24 Anglican bishops to open Southcott's Box of Sealed Writings and to this end advertisements have been placed in national newspapers from time to time. The Society claims the box is secreted in England, others have claimed it was opened in 1927 and found to contain a broken horse pistol and a lottery ticket.
In the 1930s about 70 members were said to be living in the Bedford community. In 1967 the Bedfordshire Times reported about 30 members living there.[1] However the Society has a worldwide membership and maintains a healing ministry that was initiated in 1923 and made available to the public a year later.
Though small in size, the Society is understood to be wealthy, owning tracts of land and properties in London, Bedford and elsewhere. In 2004 its net assets were reported to the Charity Commission as around £20 million. In 2002 the Society was ordered by the Charity Commission of England to auction off many of their assets or risk losing their favourable tax benefits as a charity in law. The auction sale in 2004 took five days.
The Society's website states that there are two remaining members of the religious community. [2]