Trappist abbey’s meditation garden honors enslaved people who once worked the land

By Nate Tinner-Williams, National Catholic Reporter

Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery in rural South Carolina, has inaugurated a new meditation garden memorializing the enslaved African Americans and Indigenous who once worked the land, part of a larger effort for atonement at the 76-year-old institution.

A blessing ceremony with Bishop Jacques Fabre-Jeune of Charleston, South Carolina, took place April 26 at the property in Moncks Corner, which functioned as Mepkin Plantation under prominent British colonists beginning in the late 18th century.

“We don’t have to be upset. Truth can always hurt,” said Fabre-Jeune, a Haitian-born prelate who is the first Black Catholic bishop in South Carolina.

“We don’t like when people tell us the truth. We feel uncomfortable. But after that experience, we know that it was good for us.”

Built in the 1760s, the complex served as the home of Henry Laurens, a Founding Father who served as a president of the Second Continental Congress. His wealth came largely from his involvement in Austin and Laurens, the largest trafficking house in North America. He held some 50 African Americans in bondage at Mepkin.

Keep reading to learn how it evolved into a Trappist monastery.

Meanwhile, another former plantation recently burned.

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