St. John in the Wilderness

Flat Rock, North Carolina

This little chapel and cemetery are very special to me. I have visited there several times and the magic never fades. It is an incredibly beautiful and peaceful place. The graves are spread out and are sort of terraced. Graves are on each side and behind the chapel.

Initially, St. John in the Wilderness was a private chapel built on the grounds of a summer home belonging to Charles Baring, a member of the Baring banking family of England. People came from Charleston to escape the oppressive summer heat.

In 1836, twenty members of the summer colony formed themselves into a congregation and the Barings deeded the church to the Bishop of North Carolina. It is noteworthy that before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, servants and white families worshipped side by side in the church pews. A plot was made available by Charles Baring for the graves of servants and later freedmen in the church burial ground.

Over the decades, the church has continued to be a focal point in the community. Prior to 1958, it was open only during the summer because virtually no congregation remained year-round. Since then, with a full-time rector, the number of communicants has increased from fifty-three to about four hundred.

St. John's churchyard is of historical significance, there being graves of men whose names appear in the records of South Carolina's past, and some of them in those of the nation as well.