Character Analysis
Though she only appears in the first part of the book and is basically unconscious throughout, Sister Mary Joseph Praise is one of the most important characters in Cutting for Stone. She is the mother of Shiva and Marion, though they never know her.
Wait, a nun who's a mother? You heard it here first. Now let's figure out what made this sister go for a mister.
The Sailing Nun
Sister Mary Joseph Praise is a nun from India, and she's devoted enough to her religious calling that she's willing to sail across the sea to Africa to bring her faith to the masses there. We don't know much about her motivations; we only know her through Marion's descriptions, which are full of gaps since he didn't ever get to meet her:
I have so often wondered what went through my mother's mind as she [...] boarded the Calangute. She would have heard stifled sobs and 'God be with you' follow her up the gangway. Was she fearful? Did she have second thoughts? (1.1.3)
On the ship, she has a date with destiny: she meets Dr. Thomas Stone, who invites her to come to Ethiopia and work with him there as a nurse. Of course, being a dutiful nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise refuses, since she feels she must continue with her mission.
Things don't go as Sister Mary Joseph Praise plans, however. Her story just sort of trails off when she makes it to Aden, in Yemen: "If I know this much about my mother's voyage, it's because it came from her lips to the ears of others and then to mine. But her tale stopped in Aden. It came to an abrupt halt in the hothouse" (1.1.72). Something awful, seemingly some sort of kidnapping and rape or torture, happens to Sister Mary there; it will determine her fate, too.
Expecting, Unexpectedly
When a nun who has worked in a hospital for years without ever seeming to betray her vows of celibacy suddenly turns up sick with a bellyache, the first diagnosis to come to mind isn't going to be pregnancy. Unfortunately, this confusion about her condition is what ultimately kills her: no one is able to respond, because they don't realize that she is giving birth, much less birth to conjoined twins.
When the folks at Missing finally figure it out, it's practically too late:
There, like a rock at the bottom of a mud pit, a stone of the heart, was a baby's head.
"Lord, she's," Matron said, when she could finally speak, gasping at the sacrilegious word that threatened to choke her and which her mouth could no longer contain, pregnant." (1.2.48-49)
Sister Mary Joseph Praise is basically just a vessel at this point; she has no personality or will. She's just a body, opened up by biology, with all of her friends and colleagues staring in to see the proof that she has sinned. But even though she's not a character with lots of agency, she does have an important role in the novel after the birth of the twins…
Ghost Mom
Sister Mary Joseph Praise dies soon after her horrible, complicated labor—and it's one of the most awful scenes in the novel. Get ready for some gore, because the upcoming quote is not pretty. After Mary's death, Stone tries to revive her, futilely:
His right hand was buried within her thorax, but his eyes were on Sister Mary's engorged left breast, which he held out of the way with his left hand. The breast felt firm, unlike the slippery, soft heart. He saw blotchy blue shadows creep into her face, a hue that her brown skin shouldn't have been capable of. Her abdomen had collapsed, its surface crinkled like an airless balloon, its two halves splayed open like a book whose spine had given way. (1.10.27)
Dr. Stone tries to physically restart Sister Mary's heart by opening her up and squeezing, but nothing works. The narrator compares his own mother to a series of objects that aren't right: blue skin that should be brown, an emptied balloon, a broken book. The loss of Sister Mary is a rupture; it's a mistake.
But her presence throughout Shiva and Marion's life is still constant, even if it's not exactly physical. Her memory and the things she leaves behind remain a big part of the boys' lives. When Ghosh is imprisoned, for example, Marion prays to his mother for help—and the crazy thing is that it works.
Finally, Sister Mary manages to bring together the boys and Thomas Stone, though it's unintentionally. The hint of a letter from her to him leaves everyone looking for a message hidden somewhere, but her words remain unknown until Shiva is dead, Marion is fifty, and Stone is nearing the end of his own life.
Sister Mary Joseph Praise's letter reveals a sensitive soul, more worried about her lover than about herself. She writes to Thomas: "I must flee Missing to spare it my shame just as I once fled to it to hide my shame. If you come to me when you get this letter, I will know that you wish me to be with you. But whatever you do, my love will always be the same" (4.55.1). Sister Mary's enduring love comforts all of the other characters, even though it comes pretty late in the game.