Zinia Teresa Carmen Pinto (

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, 7 September 1929 –

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, 4 June 2013) was a Roman Catholic nun and teacher working in

, Pakistan.

Early life

She was born in 1929 in

Portuguese Goa The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

. After finishing high school in Goa, she completed a bachelor's degree in philosophy from

St. Xavier's College, Mumbai St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic Church, Catholic, institution of higher education run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on 2 January 1869. The college is ...

and then trained as a teacher.Profile
''The Express Tribune'', 6 June 2013. She came to Karachi in 1954 and joined St Joseph's Convent School as a teacher in July 1956. She taught English Language and Literature in classes 9 to 11. She left the school in December 1957 to start her religious education. She joined the Order of the

Daughters of the Cross The Daughters of the Cross of Liège () are religious sisters in the Catholic Church who are members of a religious congregation founded in 1833 by Marie Thérèse Haze (1782–1876). The organization's original mission is focused on caring for th ...

in 1958 and went to Belgium to complete her religious education.

Career

Upon her return she joined the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...

and was awarded a master's degree in psychology. She re-joined St Joseph's School and continued to teach. She helped at St Joseph's College. She became the principal of the school on 1 June 1963 and continued in this position until 1999. She served as the chairperson of the Karachi archdiocesan

Catholic Board of Education The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. She has mostly taught Religious Studies to classes 6 and 7. St Joseph's was one of the first schools to introduce computers during her tenure. In 2012, she was named Administrator of the school. Pinto was Mother Superior of the

in Pakistan. A student donated 150 trees to be planted in the school and a special

Neem ''Azadirachta indica'', commonly known as neem, margosa, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of the two species in the genus '' Azadirachta''. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and to parts of S ...

tree in her name, would mark her place in the school's history. She met with Pope

John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

on 3 occasions and was present at the Mass he celebrated in Karachi on 16 February 1981.''The Herald'', May 2005

Death and legacy

She died on 4 June 2013 after being hospitalized at the Holy Family Hospital. Her funeral service took place on 6 June at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. She "steered the school through a period when nationalisation, denationalisation, privatisation and the commercialisation of schools ruined the structure of education in the country."Dawn Obituary
dawn.com, 9 October 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinto, Zinia Heads of schools in Pakistan 20th-century Pakistani Roman Catholic nuns 1929 births 2013 deaths Pakistani people of Goan descent University of Karachi alumni 21st-century Pakistani Roman Catholic nuns Pakistani schoolteachers Indian emigrants to Pakistan