RAI premieres film on Biagio Conte, Palermo priest known as the 'saint of the poor'

Italian public broadcaster RAI premiered the television film "Sul cammino di Francesco – La vita di Biagio Conte" (On the Path of Francis – The Life of Biagio Conte) on Rai 1 on Sunday, October 11, 2026, at 9:30 p.m. local time, according to production details reported by Italpress and Famiglia Cristiana. The roughly 100-minute film is also available on the RaiPlay streaming platform.

The film tells the story of Biagio Conte, a Palermo man born into a wealthy construction-business family who left his home in 1990 and later founded the Missione di Speranza e Carità (Mission of Hope and Charity), an organisation that still shelters homeless people, migrants and former detainees in Sicily today.

Who was Biagio Conte

According to Famiglia Cristiana, Conte was born on September 16, 1963, in Palermo. At 16 he left school to work in his father's construction business but, by his own account, felt unfulfilled by material wealth. He left home on May 5, 1990, at age 26, leaving behind a note that read "Forgive me, but you didn't understand me," and walked to Assisi without a map, sleeping outdoors and begging for food along the way.

After Franciscan communities turned down his application to join them, he took lay vows at the Oasi della Speranza in Palermo and founded the Missione di Speranza e Carità in 1991. On September 15, 1993, he obtained an abandoned municipal building on via Archirafi for the mission after a 13-day hunger strike — the same day priest Pino Puglisi was killed by the Mafia in Palermo, Famiglia Cristiana reported.

The mission he built eventually grew to three structures — the Missione di Speranza e Carità, a women's shelter (Accoglienza Femminile) and the Cittadella del Povero e della Speranza — serving an estimated 600 people across ten centres in Sicily, per the same source. Conte met Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and hosted Pope Francis at the mission in 2018; in 2019 he walked across Europe toward EU institutions in Brussels. He died on January 12, 2023, at age 59, of colon cancer; the mission is now led by Don Pino Vitrano.

The film and its premiere

The film was directed by Costanza Quatriglio from a screenplay she co-wrote with Stefano Rulli, and produced by Gloria Giorgianni for Anele in collaboration with Rai Fiction, according to Italpress and BadTaste.it. Actor Alessio Vassallo plays Biagio Conte, with Donatella Finocchiaro, Antonio Catania, Alessandra Fazzino and Giuseppe Spata in supporting roles. BadTaste.it reported that filming took place in Palermo and Assisi.

The production was made to mark the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, BadTaste.it reported, tying Conte's story to the medieval friar whose choice of poverty inspired him.

The national preview was held on October 5, 2026, in Palermo in the presence of Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Don Pino Vitrano, president of the Missione di Speranza e Carità, according to Famiglia Cristiana.

What is not yet known

RAI's own press materials for the film could not be accessed directly for this article; details above rely on Italian news outlets that cite the broadcaster's production notes. Audience ratings for the October 11 broadcast had not been published in the sources reviewed at the time of writing.