Orsola Aquinas

Orsola Aquinas (オルソラ＝アクィナス) is a nun in training who specializes in decoding magical texts. She was a member of a the Roman Catholic Church and has done many great deeds in its name, as such she was well celebrated for it, and even had a church in Japan built for her.

She later defects to the Anglican Church after being rescued from the Agnese Forces.

Appearance
She has slightly short blond hair and blue eyes. She initially wears a black nun's robe from her days back in the Roman Catholic Church, but as of Volume 16, her attire changes to a plain white nun's robe of the English Anglican Church. According to Sherry Cromwell, she has rather large breasts

Personality
She has a unique way of talking; according to Touma, her way of thinking resembles that of a grandmother. She often ends up talking about something unrelated before jumping back to the original topic, often leaving people flabbergasted. In Volume 11, she states that her hometown is in Chioggia, Italy.

Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc

 * Main article: Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc

A former decoder of grimoires and other magical texts, she is allegedly able to decode "The Book of the Law", a powerful Roman Catholic Church grimoire. Because of this, she is captured along with The Book of the Law by the Amakusa Christians. The Roman Catholic church sends the Agnese Forces to save her, while Necessarius sends Stiyl, who drags Index and Touma with him.

It is later revealed the the Amakusa Christians were actually trying to save Orsola, and that the Agnese Forces were sent to dispose of her because the Roman Catholic Church labeled her as dangerous due to her being able to decode The Book of the Law. She is saved by Touma and company, and becomes a decoder for the Anglican Church. She works alongside Sherry Cromwell, and the two of them get along somehow.

Daihasei Festival Arc

 * Main article: Daihasei Festival Arc

When Stiyl is talking over the phone with Sherry Cromwell, Orsola is heard over the phone working along with Sherry on decoding information on the Croce di Pietro. Sherry at this point doesn't quite get along well with Orsola due to the difference in their personality, and admonished her there is no time to eat right now while working. Orsola replies this is a muffin made by the Amakusa that helps with physical recovery as she is still hurt from the events of the Book of the Law. Sherry grudging accepts that reason before getting agitated about Orsola leaving crumbs while she's eating. the phone cuts off here after some scuffling.

Later, Orsola tries to call Stiyl to report in the information found but dialled to Motoharu's phone instead by accident. Motoharu and Touma are exasperated by her thought patterns, going from greetings to a good sushi shop near Waterloo Station, before finally telling them the requirements to activate the Croce di Pietro.

La Regina del Mare Adriático Arc
Orsola returns to her home in Chioggia, Italy as she prepares to move her belongings to her new home to England with the help of the Amakusa Christians. She meets Touma who struggles with Italian and she takes her in; in return, Touma helps out in the move. After all her belongings were packed, Orsola is attacked by Roman Catholic assassins, but the attempt was stopped by Touma and Index. Then the assassins summon an ice ship in the canal scooping up both her and Touma and escape into the Adriatic Sea. On that ship Orsola and Touma stow away on the ship avoiding the assassins and hide inside a vacant room. Then both Orsola and Touma encounter her assassin, Agnese Sanctis who was entering the room.

It turns out the Agnese and her forces are held captive and only Agnese was able to move within the fleet due to serving a special purpose. Orsola and Touma decide to save Agnese and the others despite their past experiences with each other, and with assistance from the Amakusa Christians, they thwart Bishop Biagio Busoni's plans of destroying Academy City using the Queen of the Adriatic Sea spell.

Later, Orsola takes Sisters Agnese, Lucia and Angelene, along with the rest of the Agnese Forces to the Necessarius dorm, where they would stay as members of the Roman Catholic division of Necessarius.

English Civil War
When the members of the Anglican women’s dorm began to evacuate during Carissa's coup d’etat, she claimed that she couldn't keep up with the others so she stayed behind. When Touma arrives with Lessar wounded in his arms, she begins medical treatment and tells him about the train to Folkestone. Later Orsola reappears with the remaining forces of the Anglican Church before they begin their attack on Carissa. During the last supper, she reveals the reason for her slow retreat by going to Sherry and giving her the statue she carved of Ellis. After shoving sandwiches in Sherry's mouth, she tried giving her some clothes to replace her current worn out one with a 'Goddess Goth Maid' outfit after hearing the conversation from the Amakusas. After Sherry flat out rejected it, Orsola decided to put it on herself with Sherry trying to stop her.

Abilities
At random cases Orsola demonstrates being stronger than she appears, this is evident when Touma commented it when she forcibly wiped off his sweat and carried a wounded Lessar and Sherry's statue of Ellis quite a distance. Orsola is also an expert in spreading Christianity in pagan lands and despite being subject to countless hostility and violence from all sides she carried no weapon.

Even though she failed to decode the Book of Law, Orsola has been stated to be a specialist at decoding within the Roman Catholic Church and her abilities have been put to use by Necessarius at some points.

Design evolution
Apart from her clothes that are due to the storyline, Orsola's overall design has remained fairly static. Orsola was designed by Haimura with the intention of making a somewhat normal-looking nun, since both Index and Sasha Kreutzev look nothing like a real nun.

In her appearance for the 11th light novel volume, Haimura had to decide what hairstyle she would wear if she did not wear her hood and wimple

Trivia

 * According to the interview on Kazuma Kamachi featured in "Toaru Majutsu no Index no Subete", Orsola is the one whom he want to choose as his wife among all Index characters.
 * Orsola's seiyuu, Endou Aya, also voices Tessou Tsuzuri in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun.
 * Her last name is the same as the Saint and Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, indicating she may have some sort of relationship to him.

Quotes

 * (To Touma, Volume 7) : “The power of the grimoires has never brought forth any happiness to anyone.”
 * (To Sherry, Volume 18) : “Wiping away your regrets and denying the dead are not the same thing. I do not think it is right to cut yourself off from your past. There is no reason that people who treasure their memories of the dead have no right to have a new life and construct a new house.”
 * (To Sasha, Volume SS1) : “Do you understand the meaning of the small power we have?";“That small power allows us to continue forward without giving in when faced with a dispute that seems inescapable or it seems inevitable a life will be taken. That power gives us the opportunity to save the future of our allies, to not have to deprive our enemy of their future, and to all gather here in a single building afterwards. …‘He’ had no power and ‘he’ did not have the proper background, but he was able to do it. So why are we not able to? If ‘he’ can save so many people on his own, just think how many more we can save if we work together. There is no meaning in giving up. If you want to find meaning, it is crucial that you never give up.”