Mother Superior Maria is the leader of the pact. Also known as Gerontisa, she has the endless curiosity of a 5-year-old and maintains a constant fascination with the ways of the world. At 70-something, her agility does not match her wrinkles and her girlish laugh is a direct throwback to her teenage years, back when she first realized that the world, as she knew it, wasn’t a place she could call her own. Which is why she and her best friends decided they were going to change it!
Always ready to conquer new territory, Mother Superior Maria is the kids’ favorite and the driving force behind the survival and expansion of the Lyrio Children's Village.
Along with his 4 siblings, Nikos has been living in Lyrio for the past 8 years. His father was a petty criminal and his mother had forced him and his siblings to beg on the streets. Once the court placed him under the nuns’ care, he started a new life and now hopes to become a car mechanic.
But the pull from his burdened past is still strong. At 19, his mother is eager to win him back so she can live off him, while his father – recently divorced from his second wife – is suddenly glad to have someone around. Only problem is, Nikos needs to finish high school first, and no one has any real interest in his future but the nuns. And they’re losing their grip on him fast...
Maria and her twin brother were brought to the village by their mother, after she was abandoned by her philandering husband. Maria was the perfect child, demure and sweet-natured. At 25 she was introduced to a young priest-to-be and was instantly incorporated into his extended god-fearing family.
Although heavily involved in the child-rearing process while still at Lyrio, Maria tended to blend into the background and never seemed to find her own voice. Now married and pregnant with her first child, she is a prime example that history is repeated, allowing the nuns' powerful influence to define her future - a trick their own parents' once tried on them.
