Earthquakes

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• Earthquakes

You can't tell the story of the California missions without encountering one or more earthquakes. Some of these occurred close in time but far apart in distance. I've noted that some histories get these confused. So, to set the record straight, here is a listing of the major (5.0 and above) earthquakes in California that had some potential effect on the missions (not all earthquakes are recorded in mission histories; see the reference link for a complete listing with more detail). [Note: This list is presently incomplete; it is being compiled as the various mission histories are written. Many of the earthquakes below will eventually be removed if they prove unimportant in mission history.]

Saints and Earthquakes

There are patron saints for most everything. As far as earthquakes go, there are four saints historically associated with earthquakes.

• Saint Agatha (d. 250); feast day 5 February. Associated with earthquakes through her intercession in preventing eruptions of Mount Etna.
• Saint Francis Borgia (1510-1572); feast day 10 October. Pope Benedict XIV proclaimed Saint Borgia the patron of earthquakes in 1756. Saint Borgia worked in Portugal and in 1756 about 50,000 people were killed in Lisbon by an earthquake.
• Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea (213-268); feast day 17 November. Saint Gregory was known as the "wonder-worker" because of the various physical miracles he performed; some said to change the course of a river as an earthquake might.
• Saint Emygdius (d. 303); feast day 9 August. This is probably the favored earthquake patron saint in California. Padres are said to have prayed to him when earthquakes struck. After the Great Fort Tejon quake in 1857 Bishop Thaddeus Amat asked Rome for permission to observe the feast of Saint Emygdius in the Monterey Diocese. Pope Pius IX said yes 9 January 1858. In 1863 the range of Saint Emygdius was expanded down to Los Angeles.

References

• Earthquake History at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/info/eqhistory/
• Weber, Msgr. Francis J. Encyclopedia of California's Catholic Heritage. St. Francis Historical Society and The Arthur H. Clark Company. 2000.