Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
2 Oct 2012
2 Oct 2012
Sr Maria Casey rsj supports and helping with Cause of Suzanne Aubert for Sainthood
Australian Josephite, Sister Maria Casey, rsj former Postulator for St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, has offered her help and support for the case for elevating Suzanne Aubert, founder of New Zealand's Sisters of Compassion, to sainthood.
Elected the first woman president of the New Zealand and Australian Canon Law Society at its annual conference in Auckland last month, Sr Maria took time out during her trans-Tasman visit to travel to Wellington to meet with Father Maurice Carmody, Postulator for the cause of Suzanne Aubert.
"Fr Carmody was appointed Postulator by the Vatican in 2010 and has already carried out the initial writings and is now undertaking detailed investigations into her life and evidence of her holiness as well as taking testimonies," says Sr Maria, explaining that the cause for the beatification and sanctification of Suzanne Aubert is still in the very early stages of what can be very long and complicated process.
Father Maurice Carmody Postulator for the Cause of Suzanne Aubert
"This is to ensure there is real integrity and no room for future contradiction," she says.
While there is no doubt Suzanne Aubert lived a selfless life which included founding some of New Zealand's first hospitals and working closely with the Maori people, to be beatified and later, canonised, the person for whom a case is made for sainthood is judged on her holiness.
"There is no doubt Mother Aubert, as she was known, inspired great devotion and I am happy to give whatever help I can from the experience which led to the canonisation of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. But this is largely confined to the actual process and suggesting which set out in detail exactly what is required as part of this process, but which are not commonly available " Sr Maria explains.
If the quest by New Zealand's Catholics is successful and approved by the Vatican's Congregation for the Cause of Saints in Rome, Suzanne Aubert is set to become the country's first-ever saint.
Athough 82 Suzanne Aubert returned to New Zealand having obtained papal permission for the congregation she founded
Although living at the same time as St Mary of the Cross MacKillop who spent considerable time in New Zealand, so far there is no record the pair ever met. But Sr Maria believes it is highly likely their paths may have crossed.
Born in 1835 to a respectable middle class family in a small French village not far from Lyon, Suzanne Aubert was just two years old when she fell through the icy surface of a pond onto the rocks below, leaving her temporarily crippled and blind. She would later regain the use of her limbs.
As a result of the accident and the later early death of a disabled brother, Suzanne developed an enduring empathy for the sick, ill and disabled.
Educated by Benedictine nuns, she worked as a nurse in Crimea as a teenager alongside Florence Nightingale. As was the custom of the time, her parents arranged a marriage for her to the son of a family friend. Suzanne, however, refused to wed him or anyone else, which left her distraught mother seeking advice from the parish priest of Ars, Father Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, better known today as St Jean Vianney or the Cure of Ars. Fr Vianney made no attempt to persuade Suzanne to marry but instead told her family, God had other designs for her. These were realised as a 24 year old when Bishop Pompallier arrived in Lyon to recruit missionaries for his diocese in Auckland.
Suanne Aubert with Maori and pakeha - European - students at her school in Jerusalem, NZ
Setting sail for New Zealand with three other young Frenchwomen, she arrived in Auckland and joined the English-speaking Sisters of Mercy. Although new arrivals were expected to teach French, embroidery, singing and sewing to the daughters of Auckland's wealthy families, Suzanne and her fellow French sisters were determined to help the nation's indigenous people.
Not only learning Maori and speaking it fluently, Suzanne worked in orphanages, established hospitals and developed herbal remedies for the sick. She also set about compiling an English-Maori dictionary as well as a French-Maori phrase book, and later a groundbreaking Maori-English phrase book as well as a Catholic Maori prayer book. After several years she left Auckland for Hawke's Bay and then at the request of a Maori group on a trading mission, headed for Hiruharama, or Jerusalem as it was also known, a small hamlet 60 km up the Whanganui River on the west coast of the North Island.
The Sisters of St Joseph, the congregation founded by St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, were already working in the area. But there were only a few in number and it was Suzanne, with her energy, charisma and hard work that helped revive the Catholic mission there. Teaching the Maori language and customs to her fellow sisters. Many children and adults who came to the local school where she taught became converts and when Mother Mary MacKillop's Sisters of St Joseph decided to leave the area in 1884, Suzanne was asked to lead and establish a branch of the Marist Third Order Regular of Mary.
Committed to working together in a spirit of compassion, openness and integrity to meet the needs of the aged, the sick, the oppressed and the powerless, Suzanne Aubert and her sisters created a productive farm out of scrub and bush, manufactured and sold medicines and raised homeless children.
Suzanne Aubert in bonnet with the orphans and foundlings she cared for
Moving to Wellington in 1899, she and her sisters set up a soup kitchen for the poor as well as a much-needed home for the disabled. Ahead of her time, she also established a crèche for the children of working families. The sisters work expanded across NZ and in 1891 they opened a home for babies in Auckland. But as happened with the Sisters of St Joseph, the Church hierarchy in New Zealand were unhappy with the direction the community. In response Suzanne established her own congregation and in 1892 founded the Sisters of Compassion, New Zealand's first and only home-grown congregation.
Again like St Mary of the Cross, Mother Aubert travelled to Italy to enlist the Pope's support. She remained in Rome for four years until April 1917 when at the age of 82, Pope Benedict XV finally granted the congregation she had founded independence from the Church in New Zealand.
Returning to Wellington, she continued to work with the poor and with her sisters to provide hospital treatment and trained nursing, all free of charge to the poor.
Mother Aubert died in New Zealand on 1 October 1926, aged 91. Her funeral in Wellington remains the greatest funeral ever accorded a woman in New Zealand's history.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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