Claim: John Fante is a screenwriter.

The Reluctant Saint is a 1962 film which tells a somewhat fictionalized version of the story of Joseph of Cupertino , a 17th-century Italian Conventual Franciscan friar and mystic who is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church . It stars Maximilian Schell as Joseph , as well as Ricardo Montalban , Lea Padovani , Akim Tamiroff , and Harold Goldblatt . The movie was written by John Fante and Joseph Petracca and directed by Edward Dmytryk .   Joseph of Cupertino was said to have been remarkably unclever , but was recorded by many witness during his life as prone to miraculous levitation and intense ecstasies . This movie follows Joseph -LRB- Maximilian Schell -RRB- from his final days living at home with his mother -LRB- Lea Padovani -RRB- . Because of his slow wits , she has kept him in school despite his being a grown man , older than the other students . He is seen bearing patiently and good-heartedly the ridicule of his fellow villagers , and enduring failed attempts at work as a laborer . At the insistence of his mother -LRB- who saw no viable alternatives -RRB- , we see him joining a Franciscan friary through the influence of his uncle -LRB- Harold Goldblatt -RRB- , an authority in the religious order . But trouble follows Joseph wherever he goes , including the friary , because of his slow wits . Eventually his good heart is noticed by a visiting bishop , -LRB- Akim Tamiroff -RRB- , who orders that he be trained to be a priest .   Despite Joseph 's incapacity for the necessary scholarly studies , and preference for just managing the sheep and other animals in the friary 's stable , Joseph does become a priest . Although he learns little from the tutoring by the friars , Joseph passes the necessary examinations for the priesthood through a series of unlikely or possibly miraculous events . Soon after , when Joseph is seen levitating at the time of his ecstatic prayers to the Virgin Mary , one of the superiors in the community , -LRB- Ricardo Montalban -RRB- , claims that Joseph suffers from demonic possession . Joseph is therefore exorcised , but his levitations continue , persuading everyone -- including his former critic -- of the divine origins of his levitations .   Most of the key events in the movie are based on historical events or reports about the life of St. Joseph of Cupertino .