Church of Aphrodite
The Church of Aphrodite was a religious group founded in 1939 by Gleb Botkin, a Russian émigré to the United States. Monotheistic in structure, the Church believes in a singular female goddess, who is named after the ancient Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.
Gleb Botkin used this symbol of Aphrodite on the vestments for his Church of Aphrodite. | |
| Formation | c. 1939 |
|---|---|
| Type | Religious organization |
| Purpose | structural Monotheistic Church, based off a singular female goddess, who is named after Aphrodite, the ancient Greek love goddess. |
| Headquarters | Charlottesville, Virginia, US |
| Location |
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Having grown up in the Russian Imperial court, Botkin fought in the Russian Civil War on the side of the counter-revolutionary forces after his father, a physician to the royal Romanov monarchy, was executed by the Bolshevik government. Fleeing to Long Island in the United States, he began writing novels and non-fiction books, mostly set in his Russian homeland, before coming to believe in a female divinity and founding the Church of Aphrodite. He won the right to register it as a religious charter in the New York State Supreme Court.