Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano

History & Significance

Basilica · Est. Mission founded 1776; basilica church completed 1986, designated a minor basilica in 2000

Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded on November 1, 1776, by Franciscan missionaries under St. Junípero Serra as the seventh of California's 21 Spanish missions, named for St. John of Capistrano. The adjacent Mission Basilica, a large church evoking the original Great Stone Church (destroyed in the 1812 earthquake), was completed in 1986. In the Jubilee Year of 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed it a minor basilica, and in 2003 it was designated a national shrine. It is an active parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

Spanish Mission / Spanish Colonial Revival, evoking the original Great Stone Church

• •Mission founded November 1, 1776, by St. Junípero Serra (seventh of California's 21 missions)
• •Active parish church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange
• •Designated a minor basilica in 2000 by Pope John Paul II during the Jubilee Year
• •Designated a national shrine in 2003 by the U.S. bishops
• •Basilica church completed in 1986, recalling the original Great Stone Church lost in the 1812 earthquake