Collapse of the Great Stone Church
- When
- December 8, 1812
- Where
- Mission San Juan Capistrano, Alta California
A December 8, 1812 earthquake struck during Sunday service, pinning the church doors shut and collapsing the building onto worshippers.
On the morning of December 8, 1812, the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, a series of large earthquakes shook Southern California during the first Sunday service. The 7.5-magnitude San Juan Capistrano earthquake racked the doors to the church, pinning them shut, and 40 parishioners were killed during the collapse of the church at the early morning service. The Great Stone Church was all but leveled by the earthquake.
Sources
- Mission San Juan Capistrano Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
- 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-01
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.