MALAWI: Mourns Sr. Luiza Dzikolidaya Who Co-Founded Presentation Sisters Congregation
The late Sr. Luiza Dzikolidaya
Sam Kalimba
Sister Luiza Dzikolidaya, co-founder of the Presentation Sisters in the Catholic Diocese of Dedza, was called to the Father on 4th December 2025. The Association of Women in Religious Institutes in Malawi (AWRIM) announced from their Secretariat in Lilongwe on the same day.
According to the statement released by the Secretariat, Sister Luiza was born on 14th October 1931 and served in the vineyard of the Lord for 75 years.
Interview with Sr. Luiza in August 2025, on Luntha TV
Sr. Luiza looked very happy in her old age and was able to narrate the beginning of her encounter with the Presentation Sisters.
She said she first joined the Congregation of the Teresian Sisters but had to follow her heart to serve the poorest of the poor. When she got the news that the then Prelate of the Diocese of Dedza, late Bishop Cornelius Chitsulo, wanted to establish a special arm of the Diocese to care for the growing numbers of the needy, she approached him. She later formalized the move to leave the former and join the latter. She was the first Sister and became a teacher.
Sr. Luiza said in the televised interview that she would go as a happy person to the Heavenly Father because the Congregation she helped grow stands on a strong foundation and has able sisters who would take it to the rest of the country.
Sr. Luiza was there when the late Bishop Chitsulo named the Congregation, Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She said that the name was founded on the premise that the Church was observing the commemoration of the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in November 1950.
The history of the Diocese of Dedza will not be without a mention of the Sisters of Presentation.
The body of late Sr. Luiza Dzikolidaya was laid to rest on 5th December 2025 at the Sisters of Presentation Formation House, Mtendere Cemetery in the Diocese of Dedza.
