Vittorio Innocente is the narrator and protagonist of Lives of the Saints. His mother is Cristina Innocente. He lives in the small town of Valle de Sole in his maternal grandfather’s house with his mother. His father, Mario Innocente, left for America to find work when he was two years old. Vittorio has very few memories of him. He describes his father as “like a phantom” (31). Vittorio is a quiet, curious boy with few friends. He spends time helping on his family’s small farm herding sheep.

Vittorio is six years old at the outset of the narrative. Initially, he is not very interested in school. He prefers to skip class and spend time with his best friend, Fabrizio, wandering around the mountains or near the river, “sharing with him cigarettes filched from his father” (3). However, after the maestra, or teacher, visits to tell his mother about his truancy, his mother encourages him to spend the summer catching up on his lessons. Vittorio does not get on with the other boys in his school. As a result, he grows closer with his teacher and they bond through reading the Lives of the Saints together.