agape-

A genus of plants of the amaryllis family, or the lily family; literally, "flower of love": There are not many species, but some members of the genus Agapanthus are known as the "Lily of the Nile" or the "African lily".

A plant of the lily family: The agapanthus flowers are bluish or white, funnel-shaped, and formed in ball-shaped clusters with sword-shaped leaves. They are native to southern Africa.

The love feast of the primitive Christians, being a meal partaken in connection with the communion: The Agape took place in early Christianity in commemoration of the Last Supper.

1. Christian love: In Christian Theology, agape, or God's love for man, can be divine love, or spontaneous, altruistic love.

Agape is spiritual love, as opposed to sexual love.
2. The love feast accompanied by the Eucharistic celebration in the early Christian church: The agape was a meal that was partaken with others as a symbol of shared love and companionship.

Characterized by Christian love: Mark's personality combined agapeistic elements as in selflessness and charitable brotherly love.

An English religious community of men and women, holding all material goods in common, was based upon the theories of various German religious mystics, and had for its primary object the spiritualization of the matrimonial state.

This religious sect was founded (c.1850) at the village of Spaxton, Somerset, by Henry James Prince (1811–1899), Samuel Starky, and others. Prince and Starky were clergymen who had left (c.1843) the Church of England after Prince claimed that the Holy Ghost had taken up residence in his body. The Agapemonites proclaimed the imminent second coming of Jesus.

Despite the purely spiritual ideas which underlay the Agapemonite view of marriage, a son was born to one of the couples, and when the father endeavoured to carry it away, an action was brought which resulted in the affirmation of the mother's right to its custody. The circumstance in which a fourth sister joined the community and was abducted by her brothers led to an inquiry in lunacy and to her final settlement at Spaxton.

A few years after the establishment of the "Abode of Love", a peculiarly gross scandal, in which Prince and one of his female followers were involved, led to the secession of some of his most faithful friends, who were unable any longer to endure what they regarded as the amazing mixture of blasphemy and immorality offered for their acceptance. The most prominent of those who remained received such titles as the "Anointed Ones", the "Angel of the Last Trumpet", the "Seven Witnesses", and so forth.

Such riotous conditions at the community caused scandal, and after Prince lost a lawsuit brought by two disenchanted followers in 1860, the community slipped from public notice. There was a period (c.1890) of renewed activity when J. H. Smyth-Pigott, who believed himself to be Jesus reincarnated, conducted meetings at an Agapemonite branch establishment in Clapton, London. He succeeded Prince as leader of the sect, which vanished soon afterward.

A member of the religious organisation Agapemone: Samuel Starky and Henry James Prince founded the sect Agapemone about 1850 in a little village in Somerset. They considered themselves and those of the congregation to be Agapemonites.

The ancient Greek masculine name which means "Love": Agapios, from agape, was the name of a saint from Caesarea who was martyred under the Roman emperor Diocletian.

The doctrine exalting the value of love, especially in its general, nonsexual sense: Agapism was a belief in an unselfish, benevolent brotherly love.

An iconoclastic view: " 'Love Feast,' first of Aphrodite's holy whores (Horae), was canonized as a Christian saint when icons of the Horae were re-lableled 'virgin martyrs': Sts. Agape, Chione, and Irene. Agape originally personified the rite of sexual communion, as practiced in Aphrodite's temples and adopted by some early Christian sects as a Tantric type of 'spiritual marriage'. By the 7th century C.E. (Common Era), the agape ceremony was declared heretical, but it continued secretly throughout the Middle Ages."

A genus of Psittacidae, including parrots; literally, "bird of love": The members of the Agapornis group are small short-tailed African parrots with brightly coloured feathers.

Lack of interest in former loved ones: Anagapesis is a loss of feelings or affection for someone who was loved earlier, as for a boyfriend who moved out of town many years ago.