Mepkin Abbey

Graves in the garden terrace

Neatly tucked away between the Western edge of the Francis Marion National Forest and the Eastern banks of the

Cooper River

Cooper River

View from the Eastern bank
at the Mepkin Abbey garden

, a group of Roman Catholic Monks belonging to the worldwide Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance live in quiet reflection.

In accordance with the Rule of St. Benedict, they devote their lives to prayer, spiritual study, work and hospitality

Stairway to somewhere

Mepkin Abbey

Mepkin Abbey

Link goes to the Abbey's official website.

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(established in 1949) is a Trappist monastery located in Berkeley County, SC, nestled between Moncks Corner and the ruins of Biggin Church

Biggin Church Ruins

All that remains are the crumbling walls of the church.

The graveyard however, is still in use today. to the North and the abandoned remains of Strawberry Chapel

Strawberry Chapel

In 1748 a 7-year-old girl was tied to a headstone in the chapel graveyard, and left there. She survived. Barely.

Then things got weird. to the South, where town of Childsbury once stood.

The property was known as Mepkin Plantation when Henry Laurens bought it in 1762. A few generations later, his family sold the land, and after passing through the hands of several different owners it was eventually puchased in 1936 by the well-known magazine publisher Henry Luce (Famous for Time, Fortune, Life, and Sports Illiustrated, among others).

Pond near the garden terrace

Luce's wife (Claire Boothe Luce) commissioned an extensive landscaping project to build what became known as 'Mepkin Garden'.

The garden and a large area of adjoining land were donated by the Luce family in 1949 to the Trappist Order's Gethsemani Abbey.

At the highest point on the eastern edge of the garden terrace, there are a few burial plots with the graves of the Luce family.

A (much older) small walled graveyard is also located nearby on the grounds of the monastery, with the graves of the Laurens' family .

I got photobombed by an insect. I thought it was a
mosquito, but I'm told it's a crane-fly.

In the photo of the Luce graves at the top of this post, a wedding party can be seen in the distance. The gardens at Mepkin are a popular place for weddings, especially during the Spring and Summer months.

I don't care what anybody says, Springtime in South Carolina is just the prettiest dang thing you ever saw. And the gardens are so close to the river that summer isn't usually oppressively hot here. I did my best to not disturb the wedding party while I wandered around taking photographs.

A blue flutterbee.
"Red-Spotted Purple", supposedly,
but that sounds like a made-up name.

The monks at Mepkin grow rice and oyster mushrooms, which are available for sale at their gift shop and a few local grocery markets.

They trade food and supplies with other Abbeys, so many items from other locations are available in their gift shop.

The Mango-Pepper Jelly from an Abbey in Virginia is delicious.

They also raise chickens and they once sold eggs locally, but after the idiotic terrorists at PETA launched a protest against them for keeping chickens, they stopped selling the eggs.

Mepkin Plantation is listed in the National Register

Mepkin Plantation

Link goes to the Historical Marker Database website (hmdb.org)

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of Historic Places.

Below is an interactive flash mini-panorama that I made by taking dozens of photographs in the garden, and then stitching them together. You can click and drag the mouse on it to scroll 360-degrees left or right, or you can use the arrow keys. Shift and Ctrl will zoom in/out (the mouse wheel does the same, but this may not work depending on your browser and configuration). Be warned though: Going too fast may induce vertigo.