Strict but smiling in her nun’s habit, someone thousands of girls remember as their moral compass.

Now Sister Flavian, the longest-serving principal of Sacred Heart School (1986-98) and the founder of Carmel Junior College in Jamshedpur, on Saturday received a gift of love from one of her former students — a coffee table book on her life.

Swagata Dey, 47, an alumna of St Agnes School, Kharagpur, where Sister Flavian had been the vice-principal and English teacher in the early 1980s, has written a book, The Smiling Nun, and dedicated it to her “favourite Sister”.

Dey, who now teaches in a school in Sealdah near Calcutta, said she wanted to write a book on Sister Flavian’s life as the latter inspired thousands of girls to think for themselves and become public speakers.

Sister Flavian released the 152-page book in the presence of Dey, teachers and some former students of Sacred Heart Convent School at the Boulevard Hotel in Jamshedpur on Saturday.

The book launch was organised in the steel city as a tribute to Sister Flavian’s 25-year-old association here, said Dey. Besides Sacred Heart and Carmel Junior College, Sister Flavian was instrumental in taking up Bal Vihar School for deaf-mute children (now named Carmel Bal Vihar).

Born as as Flavie D’Souza on June 5, 1936, in Mangalore, the fifth child of the family, Sister Flavian at age 19 decided to join the congregation of The Apostolic Carmel, embarking on a spiritual life with teaching and social work. Even today, Sister Flavian works as an

English teacher for aspiring nuns in Mount Carmel, Hazaribagh.

On a book on her, she said: “I don’t deserve this, whatever I did was the call of duty. I have educated generations because I wanted to serve society and I am happy to see I have educated my students well.”

As a teacher and administrator, Sister Flavian was loved and admired, Dey said. “I started writing the book in 2017.”