Anecdotes

This is the final film of Luis Buñuel's Mexican period. He made twenty films from Mexico in total.

The film's eponymous ascetic is based on the 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites. While this film takes obvious artistic license with the story, Simeon Stylites also famously perched on a pillar in the desert, reportedly for 37 consecutive years.

According to Luis Buñuel, the film's relatively brief running time of 43 minutes resulted from financial constraints. He had envisioned the film to be full length, roughly twice the length it eventually ran, but he had to wrap up production rapidly after the 18th day of filming because he was almost out of money.

Luis Buñuel was inspired to take on this project after reading "The Golden Legend", a 13th-century biography of saints.

The film was released theatrically in Italy in 1975 as a double-bill with Dutchman (1966).

Luis Buñuel: [Injured Hands] Simon performs a miracle to restore a peasant's mangled hands.