Located south of Walterboro, South Carolina, St. James the Greater Catholic Church traces its beginnings to Irish plantation owners who worshipped in the church with the people they enslaved. The congregation began in 1826.

After the end of Civil War, many enslavers abandoned their land. Vincent de Paul Davis, a new freedman, took it upon himself to educate others about the Catholic faith and encourage others around him to continue the practice of the Catholic faith.

In 1909, a new church building was built for this important Black congregation. It was destroyed by a tornado. The current church was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style in 1935 using materials from the old church building.