S5 Ep35: The Saint and the Survivors: The Story of Junípero Serra

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He gave up comfort for a calling, left Spain for the wilds of California, and walked thousands of miles to bring the Gospel to Indigenous people. Father Junípero Serra is revered by some as a saintly hero — the man who brought Catholicism to the West Coast. But to others, he represents something far darker: a symbol of colonization, forced assimilation, and cultural destruction.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.com

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Transcript

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0:27.9	The Home of Homes.
0:31.2	There's no better feeling than waking up surrounded by comfort.
0:35.1	From Dunelm, the home of your kind of cozy.
0:38.3	Layer up in loveliness with our soft brushed cotton bedding and textured throws and pillows.
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0:57.7	The home of your kind of cozy, Dunelm.
0:59.7	The home of homes.
1:08.8	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking.
1:12.7	They change laws, change society, or even earn the label, Crime of the Century.
1:15.9	But the stories that made headlines and decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.
1:22.3	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show, I'll examine a case that's
1:28.5	maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
1:33.8	This is Crimes of the Centuries. In early July of 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
1:56.2	By then, we were already a year into the Revolutionary War, the first shots having been fired in April of
2:02.7	1775 at Lexington and Concord, Paul Revere, and all that. You know this, thanks to American
2:10.5	schooling. But what most of us don't know is that simultaneous with all that eastern seaboard ruckus,
	...

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