About
History
The first Pastor, Rev. Paul R. Cauwe, C.I.C.M., came to St. John the Beloved in 1951, but even before that, St. John had a history of its own.
Mr. John Carlin dreamed of a church on the western boundary of his very own property. In 1912 his son, William M. Carlin, gave a half-acre of his land for the site of a mission church. The Most Reverend Denis J. O'Connell, Bishop of Richmond, approved the building of a church, which they erected the following year. In 1913 a small group of pioneer families - fewer than ten - began gathering there for Mass. It became the St. John's mission of St. James parish in Falls Church. That building is still with us. The old church now serves as Carlin Hall, which holds the parish offices on the main level and the thrift shop in the basement. The new mission was entrusted to the pastoral care of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) , or the Missionhurst Fathers. They served the parish faithfully until pastoral care transferred to diocesan priests in the 1970s.
The original church of St. John, now Carlin Hall.
The interior of the original church.
In 1953, a school was built on the property, which, in 2006 was renamed St. John Academy. In 1954 the "church in the round" was built under the leadership of Fr. Cauwe.
