Sister Aloysius, the Sister of Mercy who co-founded the Lawside Romania Fund in Dundee, has died at the age of 89.
She visited the sick children of Bucharest’s Budimex Hospital on Sunday, the day before her death.
Born Gertrude Philomena Kiernan into a farming family in County Cavan, Ireland, she was one of 12 children, three of whom died in infancy. One of those children was her younger brother, Aloysius, which is why she chose that as her religious name.
Her eldest sister Delia (Sister Mary Clare) decided she wanted to become a Sister of Mercy and she travelled to Scotland to enter the Mercy Convent in Elgin in 1928.
At 17, Gertrude decided to follow in her sister’s footsteps and join the Sisters of Mercy.
She trained as a teacher at Craiglockhart College in Edinburgh and then taught at schools in Elgin, Tomintoul, Buckie and Keith. Among her pupils was Michael Milton, now Canon Michael Milton, administrator of St Andrew’s Cathedral, Dundee.
During her time as a teacher in the North she ran the school football teams and was honoured for her work with the local Scout groups.
After retiring as a teacher she worked in the East End of London, where her order ran a hostel for young women.
MP Emma Nicholson invited Sister Aloysius to the House of Commons to hear a talk about the situation in Ceaucescu’s Romania. That was the beginning of her love affair with that country and sparked her burning desire to do all she could to help poor people there.
She came to Dundee in 1991 and was Superior at Lawside Convent until 2000, becoming senior citizen of the year in 2001.
She shared her ideas to help Romania’s orphans with her colleague Sister Marie-Therese, who died last year, aged 92.
The two elderly sisters decided to visit Romania to see the situation for themselves. They were both so moved by the plight of young boys in an orphanage that they vowed they simply had to do something to help.
Thus was the Lawside Romania Fund born.