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Reverend Richard Misner
Mary Magna, who Connie calls “Mother,” is a nun who takes a young Connie off the streets of Brazil and raises her as her own. Though the book describes Mary Magna’s adoption of Connie as a kidnapping, Connie is so unused to attention and care that she becomes entirely devoted to Mary Magna. Connie considers Mary Magna the first and last great love of her life. When Mary Magna is assigned to work at a residential school for Native American girls, she brings Connie with her, and the two remain at this Convent together after the school shuts down. Connie repeatedly uses her healing power of “stepping in” to keep the elderly Mary Magna alive, which causes Mary Magna to glow with white light.
Mother/Mary Magna Quotes in Paradise
The Paradise quotes below are all either spoken by Mother/Mary Magna or refer to Mother/Mary Magna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Consolata Quotes
At first she tried it out of the weakness of devotion turned to panic––nothing seemed to relive the sick woman––then, angered by helplessness, she assumed an attitude of command. Stepping in to find the pinpoint of light. Manipulating it, widening it, strengthening it. Reviving, even raising, her from time to time. And so intense were the steppings in, Mary Magna glowed like a lamp till her very last breath in Consolata’s arms. So she had practiced, and although it was for the benefit of the woman she loved, she knew it was anathema, that Mary Magna would have recoiled in disgust and fury knowing her life was prolonged by evil.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Mother/Mary Magna Character Timeline in Paradise
The timeline below shows where the character Mother/Mary Magna appears in Paradise. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Mavis
...As Connie serves Mavis a meal, she explains that she lives with one other woman (Mother) in the Convent, and she assures Mavis that someone will eventually come by who can...
(full context)
...Mavis shell pecans together until Connie steps out to check on a woman she calls Mother. Left alone, Mavis considers the emptiness waiting for her back on the road.
(full context)
...to help Mavis with her car, and she asks if Connie still refuses to put Mother to a hospital. Connie insists that her mother needs to stay at home. Soane drives...
(full context)
...dark and she forgot to ask Soane’s son for directions, but mostly because she meets Mother. Mother is a small, sickly old woman who radiates a blinding white light. She bickers...
(full context)
Grace
...to the station, Roger Best stops at the Convent to pick up the body of Mother, who has recently died. Gigi is startled to learn she has been riding in a...
(full context)
...When Connie wakes up, Gigi asks who died, and Connie answers, “A love,” adding that Mother was the first and last of Connie’s two loves. Connie asks what Gigi’s full name...
(full context)
Consolata
In 1925, Mary Magna, a young nun who will become Connie’s Mother, “kidnap[s]” a nine-year-old Connie from the streets of Brazil. Mary Magna takes other orphans she...
(full context)
...of the girls have left the residential school, the founding families start to build Ruby. Mary Magna is pleased to have a pharmacy nearby, and one day she brings Connie with her...
(full context)
...that she forsook Christ for a mortal man, and she prays in the Convent’s chapel. Mary Magna tells her never to speak of the man again, even though Connie feels that on...
(full context)
...are transferred to a different residential school, which they later escape. Connie lives alone with Mary Magna and one other nun, and the Convent’s independence soon makes all three women lonely. The...
(full context)
...Connie about the physical changes she will soon face. She brews Connie a remedy that Mary Magna later refers to as witchcraft. Lone, on the other hand, insists that she believes in...
(full context)
...unwanted gift “seeing in.” Despite her dislike of the power, she uses it to keep Mary Magna alive when the nun becomes ill. Connie’s ability to strengthen the light within Mary Magna...
(full context)
Lone
...deviant (that is, lesbian) sexual activity. They also suggest the women are witches, recalling how Mary Magna ’s body glowed. Finally, the blame the women for the deaths of the white family...
(full context)
