Born in a small village on the outskirts of Rome and Vatican City, Amato was the answer to his parents’, Viola and Giacomo’s, prayers. They had tried to conceive almost immediately after their marriage to fulfill Giacomo’s dream to have help on the small farm he cultivated, but they failed time and time again. At last, when they were both tin their forties, Viola gave birth to a healthy boy who was later christened Amato.
When he was twelve, Amato got into a fist fight with one of the other village children over the affections of a girl. Punching the other boy gave him a glimpse of the older child torturing the various dogs and cats of the village for entertainment. The day after the fight, Amato rallied the other children, telling them what the older boy had done to their pets and playmates. Like all good Christian children of their region, they knew their Bible and had been taught that the wages of sin were death. Armed with stones and with Amato at the lead, the children marched on the other boy. But before Amato could cast his stone, his arm was caught by one of Vatican City’s monks.
Frightened by the monk, Amato was speechless when asked to explain himself. But while the monk spoke, holding his arm, the twelve year-old’s mind was flooded with all of the man’s misdeeds. At the direction of the few children who had not scattered, the monk took Amato back to his house in order to question his parents. Made to sit at the end of the meager table where the Salucci’s took their meals, Amato broke the awkward silence by listing the monk’s sins in great detail, tearful eyes shut tight.
Amato’s ability to see into souls earned the boy a place among the monks in the Vatican when he turned thirteen. While his parents were sad to see him go, there was not much they could do to stop the church from impressing their only child into service. Promising to always write to them, Amato donned the monastic robes. Amato received his formal education from the church in order to become a priest and climb the religious ladder, as it is. The monks, however, did not take to Amato as well as he took to them. One, they were frightened by him and his apparently God-given gift to see their sins with a single touch. When he crossed the paths of his brothers in corridors, the older monks would either avert their eyes from the boy’s or stare in silent fear. Two, Amato had shown a penchant for the cleansing of the sins he saw. He did not hand out the usual prescription of prayers to those who came in for confession, but rather suggested they do something greater to earn their redemption.
Before he could become a priest, Amato attended college in Rome, majoring in Comparative Religions. In his senior year, Amato met Kazimir Volken. While intitally horrified by the older man, Amato was won over by Kazimir’s mission to rid the world of the evil that people like them represented, seeing himself as a hand of God just as Kazimir. As soon as he had his diploma in hand, Amato ran from his obligation to the Vatican in order to follow Kazimir as his protégé, student, and aid. In his wanderings with Kazimir, Amato visited many European countries, pointing out individuals for his master to exact God’s will upon. While in England, Amato came across Munin. The petite young woman possessed the ability to connect telepathically with birds, and so at a young age was drawn to the Tower of London and its majestic ravens. She was given the name Munin by one of the Tower’s more benevolent Beefeaters who took pity on the beggar-girl. Amato’s heart swelled for the girl whom he saw as a potentially very valuable asset, especially given that he saw nearly nothing (or at least anything very clear) upon touching her other than drug use. Amato took it upon himself to, in a way, save Munin from herself given his own somewhat piteous attraction to her. Convincing Kazimir that Munin would be able to extend his own hand farther out in the search for Evolved individuals, Amato brought her own and has loved her from an at times uncomfortable distance ever since. After the bomb went off in New York City in November of 2006, Amato followed Kazimir to the United States to continue their work in the city where it seemed so many Evolved were either flocking to or were already.
Prior to the actual implementation and subsequent derailment of the Vanguard's plans to launch a viral assault on the population of New York that would spread on out to the world, Amato was assaulted in his home by a man he later found was none other than Ethan Holden. The two had a long standing rivalry that centered around a struggle for favor in the eyes of both Kazimir Volken and Eileen Ruskin. In this altercation, Amato was badly burned, beaten, and his right hand was severed and stolen.
Amato sought refuge in Lucrezia Bennati's suite, having no place else to go at this point in his own betrayal of the Vanguard to those who had already turned against Kazimir. He refused healing from a friend of Lucrezia's nephew, but ensured that both Lucrezia and Eileen had doses of the virus' antidote.
After the violent events surrounding Kazimir's death and the destruction of the Vanguard proper, Amato spent a great deal of time searching for both Lucrezia and Eileen, “finding” each to be relatively well and unharmed.
Too afraid to leave the apartment, despite knowing that Kazimir is dead and as gone as he can ever be, Amato became as constant in the Ritz Carlton's royal suite as any of the insects that stand as sentries there, and has made significant progress in controlling his ability, in both a general and specific sense. But when Lucrezia was kidnapped and taken to Moab, Amato fled and sought refuge with the Ferrymen.
As a resident of the Staten Island safehouse, Amato volunteered at a soup kitchen run by a local parish and tends a small vegetable patch. Occasional social visits from the various women in his life brought him comfort, but little else and for only a brief period of time.
When the safehouse was cleared, Amato did not waste too much time before he ventured out on his own. Raith had "recruited" him to do work regarding the repairing of the world, though he never asked Amato for anything other than a promise. Amato spent some time in a Staten Island cave before he was convinced to join civilization again, only to soon after find a place with the Benedictine monks of Mount Moriah Monastery as an oblate. Still, Amato did not find peace even there.
On an excursion to Staten Island, Amato came across Nick York, and later determined that he was Eileen's brother. In an attempt to keep Eileen from knowing of her brother's proximity, Amato relocated to Staten Island, living in The Garden once again and tending to grounds and horses.
There is no peace in inaction, but far too much turmoil in action. Someday soon, perhaps Amato may find an appropriate middle ground.
