Page "Roman Catholicism in New Zealand" Paragraph 15

Many religious orders came to New Zealand.

The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Auckland in 1850 and were the first order of religious sisters to come to New Zealand and began work in health care and education.

The Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions arrived in Napier in 1867.

When Patrick Moran arrived as the first Catholic Bishop of Dunedin in February 1871, he was accompanied by ten Dominican nuns from the Sion Hill Convent, Dublin, and they proceeded to establishing their schools within days of unpacking.

In 1876, the same bishop obtained the services of the Christian Brothers who opened their Dunedin school in that year.

In 1880, the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth came from Bathurst to Whanganui where they opened 7 schools between 1880 and 1900.

The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart arrived in New Zealand in 1883 and established their first community at Temuka, South Canterbury.

During the next twenty years Mary MacKillop ( St Mary of the Cross ), the founder of that congregation, visited New Zealand four times to support her sisters.

Also Suzanne Aubert who had come to New Zealand in 1860 at the invitation of Bishop Pompallier, and had worked in Auckland and Hawkes Bay established her order the Sisters of Compassion-the first Catholic order founded in New Zealand for women-in Jerusalem in 1892.

In 1997 the New Zealand Bishops ’ Conference agreed to support the “ Introduction of the Cause of Suzanne Aubert ”, to begin the process of consideration for her canonisation as a saint by the Church.

In the twentieth century many other orders became established in New Zealand including the Carmelite nuns in Christchurch and Auckland and the Cistercians in Hawkes Bay.