Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion

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Daughters of Compassion

Mother Suzanna Aubert, foundress of the Daughters of Compassion
Formation	May 1892
Founded at	Jerusalem, New Zealand
Type	Religious congregation
Members	53
Foundress	Suzanne Aubert
Website	https://compassion.org.nz/

The Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, also known as Sisters of Compassion, is a religious institute founded in May, 1892. The Catholic order was founded by Suzanne Aubert in Jerusalem, Hiruhārama, New Zealand.

As of 2023, there are four main centres in the Wellington region with another operation in Fiji.

History

Suzanne Aubert arrived in New Zealand with a group of missionaries in 1860.^[1][2] Her vision was to become a member of the Third Order of Mary and to work with Māori.^[3] Aubert helped form the Holy Congregation in 1862 and they took over the Nazareth Institute near Freemans Bay in Auckland, which was a boarding school for Māori girls. Aubert taught at the school alongside Peata who was the first Māori nun and daughter of Ngāpuhi chief Rewa.^[2]

Before moving to Hiruharama she cared for the sick in Auckland and

She arrived in Hiruharama in 1883 with the interest of reviving a Catholic mission on the Whanganui River. Fluent in French, English and te reo Māori she published a Māori-English phrase book while there.[5] Funding for the mission was helped by Aubert's selling of home remedies derived from native plants, which she had learned of in Hawkes Bay.^[6]

The order was founded in Hiruharama, New Zealand in 1892.^[7]

Concerned with the many social problems in Wellington she left Hiruharama arriving in Wellington on 6 January 1899, accompanied by Sisters Magdalen, Agnes and Marcelle.^[8] Suzanne was by then becoming known for her herbal remedies and her care of abandoned and disadvantaged children.^[6] In Wellington the sisters very soon established a Home for people with incurable illness; a soup kitchen and a crèche. The Home of Compassion at Island Bay opened in 1907,^[9] later becoming the headquarters of the Sisters of Compassion, and the formation house where the Sisters did their religious training.^[10]

In1913, frustrated with the church bureaucracy and wanting to obtain a Papal Decree for her Congregation, Suzanne Aubert, aged 78, travelled to Rome. In 1917

Mother Aubert died at Island Bay on 1 October 1926, aged 91. Her funeral was reported in the newspapers as the greatest ever to be accorded to a woman in New Zealand.[12]

Current ministries

The order has four main centers in New Zealand and one in Fiji. The order has had women enter the order and profess vows as recently as September 2015.^[13]

The Home of Compassion

The order's current leader is Sr. Margaret Anne Mills DOLC.[17]

At present the Sisters of Compassion are engaged in a range of ministries which aim to relieve human suffering. These include:^[18]

• Nursing and caring for the aged, disabled and sick at St. Joseph's Home of Compassion in Upper Hutt and St. Peter Chanel Home of Compassion in Fiji;
• education of school children and adults;
• pastoral care;
• prison and hospital chaplaincies;
• social work and counselling;
• parish ministry;
• feeding the needy in their Wellington soup kitchen;
• serving as advocates;
• providing residential accommodation for the elderly.

After Suzanne Aubert

For some time Suzanne Aubert had foreseen the tremendous advantage of having the Sisters trained as general nurses. After many discussions with the Department of Health, a training hospital was added to the works at Island Bay in 1923. Following government legislation in 1930, the hospital was registered as a grade ‘A’ Training School in 1932.^[19]

The congregation grew, and in 1930 a convent was built adjoining the Island Bay Home, with a wing for the Novitiate.^[20] The following year the Aubert Home of Compassion was opened in Wanganui for the aged.^[21] In 1933,^[22] Archbishop Redwood blessed the foundation stone of St. Joseph's Home at Heretaunga, which housed male residents of all ages suffering from chronic diseases.^[23] In the same year a nursery for children under 2 years of age was opened in Auckland, and in 1939 a four-bed maternity home was added to this work.^[24] In 1939 a St Vincent's Home of Compassion was opened by The Minister of Health, Peter Fraser in Hafyanui Crescent, Ponsonby, Auckland.^[25]

In 1941, St. Anne's Home, for orphan girls, and chronically ill residents was opened at

On 28 March 1949, Cardinal Fumasoni Biondi, obtained the Decree of Final Approbation of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion and its Constitutions from Rome.^[30]

St Vianney's Home in Timaru was opened in 1951 and 1952 three more Homes of Compassion were established.^[31] Loreto Home in Wagga Wagga (Australia), St Raphael's in Carterton which included a registered primary school), and Chanel Home of Compassion (Fiji). The work in Fiji expanded when the Sisters taught at the newly opened St. Agnes primary school.^[32]

Bishop Warren of the

In 2022 Deacon Danny Karatea-Goddard was appointed Co-Chief Executive Māori-Tumu Whakarae. Sister Margaret Anne Mills said of the appointment, "Our multicultural reality is only made real and will only be successful if we understand our bicultural foundation... It is an expression of our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”[38]

The making of a saint

The process leading towards the