They told him it was a small thing.
Just a collar.
Just a symbol.
Just something no one would notice if it disappeared.

The offer was simple: remove it — and live.

What followed wasn’t a sermon or a speech. It was a moment. A quiet, brutal choice made on the edge of a river, with soldiers watching and history holding its breath. In a time when survival depended on pretending to be something you weren’t, one man refused to lie with his body — even to save his life.

This episode of Saints & Sinners tells the story of faith under pressure, of identity stripped down to its final thread, and of a courage so understated it almost goes unnoticed… until the blade falls.

Because sometimes the loudest witness is a single, silent refusal.

Saints rise. Sinners fall. And history bears witness.

An army is starving.
A forest offers one last chance at survival.

A knight goes in alone — and comes face to face with a beast that won’t back down. Pinned, bleeding, and outmatched, he refuses to let go… because surrender means death for more than just himself.

Before crowns were offered.
Before history took note.
There was a fight that decided everything.

He’s been called a saint.
He’s been called a villain.
And in modern headlines, he’s often reduced to a statue waiting to be torn down.

But history is never that simple.

This episode dives into one of the most recent controversial figures in Catholic and American history—set against the brutal reality of colonial expansion, missionary work, and the collision between faith, empire, and indigenous peoples.

You’ll hear about forced marches and wounded legs.
About missionaries who challenged soldiers—and soldiers who ignored them.
About a man who crossed oceans, deserts, and political minefields driven by conviction, not comfort.

This isn’t a defense piece.
It’s not an attack piece.

It’s a reckoning.

What really happened in the early missions of California?
Who benefited—and who suffered?
And how does modern outrage distort the truth of the past?

The world loves simple villains.
History rarely provides them.

In this episode of Saints & Sinners, we peel back the slogans, examine the accusations, and confront the uncomfortable reality of faith lived out on a violent frontier—without modern filters, and without easy answers.

Saints rise.
Sinners fall.
And history bears witness.