Sister Winnifred Agius

Sr Winnifred will always be remembered as an artistically talented sister who spent most of her religious life in administration.

She was Mother Superior in various convents in Malta and England, headmistress in our school in Mdina and the first headmistress when our school in Sliema was founded in the early '60s.

She was also a teacher of art and English. During her art lessons, she would help us portray nature and beauty.

While she was with us in class, she would spend her time watching us, guiding us in our work, and sketching us one by one until, at the end of the afternoon, she would have most of us drawn on the "roll book", as we called it.

Sr Winnifred was young in spirit and had a very positive outlook on life.

She was enriched with a deep faith, and prayer was a top priority for her. Adolescents gave meaning to her religious vocation, and she always kept youngsters close to her heart.

When the Sisters of St Dorothy ran Fatima House in Sliema, she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to the young girls who lived there, and in her they experienced the love of a mother and a spiritual director.

She relied blindly on Providence and was always sure that all "her" young ladies would eventually find a good husband and a modest home to live in.

Sr Winnifred, or Mother Agius as she was better known to her students, will never be forgotten by all who knew her gentleness, her enterprising spirit, her cheerfulness and, most of all, her peaceful and welcoming smile.

May she rest in peace.