Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion

The Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, known as Sisters of Compassion were founded in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whanganui River in 1892 by Suzanne Aubert. Today there are 70 Sisters working throughout New Zealand, Wagga Wagga (Australia), Fiji and Tonga. The order has had women enter the order and profess vows as recent 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 remarkable life and enduring legacy of Mother Mary Joseph Suzanne Aubert (1835–1926). Suzanne Aubert is buried on the same site. Jerusalem remains the Home of the Sisters of Compassion in partnership with the Tangata Whenua.

The order's current Superior General is Sr. Margaret Anne Mills DOLC.

Arrival in New Zealand, founding a religious institute and establishing Homes for the poor and needy.

Suzanne Aubert, born in France in 1835 joined a group of missionaries bound for New Zealand in 1860. Her vision was to become a member of the Third Order of Mary and to work with Māori. Before moving to Jerusalem where she founded the Sisters of Compassion in 1892, Suzanne worked with the Māori, and cared for the sick in Auckland and Hawkes Bay. Concerned with the many social problems in Wellington she left Jerusalem arriving in Wellington on the 6 January 1899, accompanied by Sisters Magdalen, Agnes and Marcelle. Suzanne was by then already well known throughout the country because of her herbal remedies, and also because of her care of abandoned and disadvantaged children regardless of race or creed.

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.

During 1913, frustrated with the church bureaucracy and wanting to obtain a Papal Decree for her Congregation, Suzanne Aubert, aged 78, travelled alone 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.

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