The Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion
In 1892, Mother Aubert founded the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion at Hiruharama-Jerusalem on the Whanganui River.
The Sisters of Compassion
The Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion is a religious order in the Marian tradition of Catholicism in which Mary is granted a religious dignity above that of the saints. The theological basis for the veneration of Mary rests on the doctrines of her divine motherhood, perpetual virginity, immaculate conception, and assumption.
The community at Hiruharama-Jerusalem consisted of a nunnery, an orphanage, farmlands, and of course a church. She ministered to “Māori and Pākehā, Catholic and non-Catholic without compromising her own beliefs. Tolerance and friendship became strategies for her mission”. (The Mother Aubert Home Of Compassion Trust Board). Although Aubert founded the community in 1892, she became frustrated with the Catholic bureaucracy which was impeding the papal approval of the order. In 1913 she travelled to Rome and eventually received the papal decree that she needed in 1917. In 1920, she returned to New Zealand as Mother General of the Order.
Aubert designed a medal for the Sisters of Compassion, which has the following description:
On the front of the medal, we see Mary standing at the foot of the cross with the inscription “He died for us”. This is to remind the Sisters to offer themselves with Mary to Jesus. On the reverse side, we see the seven swords to represent the seven sorrows of Mary which she endured during her lifetime. The inscription is “Our Lady of Compassion, pray for us”.
Mary as “Mother of Sorrows” (Mater dolorosa) figures prominently in Marian theology, and the seven swords were often depicted piercing her heart. They refer to the following seven scriptural events:
1. The prophecy of Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35)
2. The flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13-23)
3. The loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
4. Mary's meeting Jesus on the Via Dolorosa. (not in the New Testament)
5. The Crucifixion of Jesus on Mount Calvary. (Matthew 27:34–50, Mark 15:23–37, Luke 23:33–46, John 19:18–30)
6. The Piercing of the Side of Jesus with a spear, and his descent from the Cross. (John 19:34)
7. The burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea. (Matthew 27:57–61, Mark 15:43–47, Luke 23:50–53, John 19:40–42)
The sufferings of Mary were intimately related to her compassion, as indicated by the word compassion itself, which derives from Latin compassionem, from com- (with, together) + pati, passio (to suffer; to endure, undergo), thus meaning: “to suffer or endure with”.
The Home of Our Lady of Compassion, Island Bay, Wellington
In 1899, Mother Aubert arrived in Wellington in the company of three other sisters. They promptly set up a centre to welcome the disadvantaged, a home for the disabled, a crèche, and a soup kitchen (which still exists to this day). These efforts formed the foundations of Our Lady’s Home of Compassion, which was opened in Island Bay after a massive fundraising effort. Later, Aubert developed the Home as a facility for training nurses and for providing free hospital care to the poor.