“The little sister of the Curé d’Ars”
She was nicknamed by Pope Pius X “the little sister of the Curé of Ars”!
In France, she is little known, but in New Zealand, she is a national figure! Marie Henriette Suzanne Aubert was born on June 19, 1835 in Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay.Son
His father is a bailiff and free-thinker, his mother very pious. In 1840, the family moved to Lyon. Since childhood, Suzanne has been engaged, but as she grows up she wants to become a nun. His parents are opposed to his vocation.
From Lyon
Madame Aubert then goes to Ars to consult Mr. Vianney, Suzanne having promised to obey her: “My child, you will leave for the missions in two years, […] Oh, my child, I will help you more by death than by my life […] How many crosses, difficulties and trials await you in life! But whatever anyone does to you, whatever happens, whatever anyone says to you, never, never, never let go.”
On August 4, 1860, Suzanne Aubert left Lyon, under the pretext of going to Ars for the anniversary of the death of the holy Curé.
In truth, she is taking the train to Le Havre: she is going to join Bishop Pompallier and a group of missionaries who are leaving for New Zealand.
To New Zealand
If this escape is a heartbreak, Suzanne Aubert is only following what the Curé d’Ars told her. She will become superior of the congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, created in 1892 in New Zealand. She will remember all the details given by Mr. Vianney. When she goes up the Whanganui River to join her first mission, Suzanne is both stunned and reassured by recognizing Keepa’s House, the house where the sisters will live, described by the Curé d’Ars.
Mother Marie-Joseph Aubert will make the Curé of Ars one of the patron saints of her congregation. Suzanne then goes to evangelize the Maoris. The sisters teach them to read, they treat them using ointments and syrups that Mother Aubert has concocted.
In Weelington
The Maori twilight is irreversible and Mother Marie Joseph must soon leave the mission. She leaves for Wellington, the capital, where immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland flock. There she founded a hospice and an orphanage for foundlings and for sick and deformed children, who were still numerous at that time. She also persists in welcoming children of all faiths and in not revealing the names of single mothers so that anonymity protects them.
She went to Rome in 1913 to have her congregation recognized by the Pope; his brief visit will in fact last six years because the war will prevent any return to the antipodes. In March 1914, she began to write down the memories she had kept of the Curé d’Ars to help with the canonization file for Mr. Vianney. She wrote to her sisters in New Zealand: “Someone said to me the other day: I didn’t know that you were on such good terms with the Curé d’Ars, your business will prosper.” On the way back, Suzanne Aubert passed through Ars, she had this inscription engraved in the Basilica, near the shrine of JM Vianney: “Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion founded in New Zealand 1889 according to the direction given by the S .Parish priest in 1858”. She died on October 1 , 1926.
Extract from the Annales d’Ars n° 333[juillet-août 2011] .
