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. Her vision was to become a member of the Third Order of Mary and to work with Māori. 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.
Before moving to Hiruharama she cared for the sick in Auckland and Hawkes Bay, where she gained knowledge of medicinal uses of native flora and fauna from Paeta and other Māori women 'tohunga rongoa' (healing specialists).
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. 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.
The order was founded in Hiruharama, New Zealand in 1892.
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. Suzanne was by then becoming known for her herbal remedies and her care of abandoned and disadvantaged children. 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, later becoming the headquarters of the Sisters of Compassion, and the formation house where the Sisters did their religious training.
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 Pope Benedict XV conferred a pontifical Decree on the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion. In 1920 Suzanne returned to Wellington as Mother General of the Order she founded.
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.
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.
The Home of Compassion Island Bay is the site of the Sisters of Compassion headquarters and gathering place for the sisters. Located on the site is a Visitors’ Centre which celebrates the life and legacy of Mother Mary Joseph Suzanne Aubert. Aubert is buried on site. Jerusalem remains the Home of the Sisters of Compassion in partnership with the Tangata Whenua.
The order's current leader is Sr. Margaret Anne Mills DOLC.
At present the Sisters of Compassion are engaged in a range of ministries which aim to relieve human suffering. These include: 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.
The congregation grew, and in 1930 a convent was built adjoining the Island Bay Home, with a wing for the Novitiate. The following year the Aubert Home of Compassion was opened in Wanganui for the aged. In 1933, Archbishop Redwood blessed the foundation stone of St. Joseph's Home at Heretaunga, which housed male residents of all ages suffering from chronic diseases. 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. In 1939 a St Vincent's Home of Compassion was opened by The Minister of Health, Peter Fraser in Hafyanui Crescent, Ponsonby, Auckland.