Amazing Tales from CT: Hippies, Zealots, or Entrepreneurs - Connecticut’s Odd Sandemanian Religion

We encourage you to tune in to our newest program, Amazing Tales from Off and On Connecticut's Beaten Path, which airs Sunday afternoons at 4:30 right after the Opera.

 

Amazing Tales uses a story-telling format to focus on historically significant people, places, and events from Connecticut’s past. Host Mike Allen interviews subject matter experts on a variety of historical topics.

 

He specializes in bringing local history to life, by using his journalism and story-telling skills with podcasting and public speaking. For 15 years, Mike worked as a radio journalist, both at NPR's Boston affiliate WBUR and as News Director at i-95 (WRKI-FM) in western Connecticut. He subsequently worked in government and corporate before retiring and starting his podcast. As a resident of Connecticut for more than 50 years, Mike also makes public appearances throughout the state, speaking on topics of local history.

 

You’ve probably never heard of the Sandemanian religious order, despite the fact that it was active for nearly 200 years in Europe and America. Congregants were known as “kissites” for their nearly hippie-like practices at services. Yet, they were also quite strict – with a requirement to agree with church practices, or face excommunication. And, they produced some of the most successful businessmen of the 1700s and 1800s in Connecticut. Join Danbury history expert, Bill Devlin, who’s also an expert on the Sandemanians, to hear how this fascinating religious sect saw its congregations in Newtown, Woodbury, New Haven, and Fairfield all end up in Danbury, before the religion ultimately went extinct.