The third saint to set foot in NZ

4-mother-t-kids

With Mother Teresa being canonised as a saint on September 4, New Zealand can now claim to have had three official saints set foot in this land. In 1973, Mother Teresa visited New Zealand after speaking at the 40th International Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne.

She arrived in Wellington on February 26, where she was met by Prime Minister Norman Kirk and the Leader of the Opposition Jack Marshall.

After attending a reception for the St Luke’s Guild, she stayed at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay.

The next day, she attended a public reception at the Wellington Town Hall, and also went to an interdenominational gathering for clergy and welfare and social workers.

A quick visit to Christchurch saw Mother Teresa meet social and welfare workers, and then she flew on to Auckland, where she attended a rally at Alexandra Park.

Coincidentally, another future saint was in New Zealand in 1973, just a few weeks ahead of Mother Teresa’s visit.

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the future St John Paul II, visited Wellington for three days en route to the Melbourne eucharistic congress.

As part of his work with the Polish community in Wellington, the future pope and saint visited the sick at Wellington Hospital and at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay.

The Home of Compassion is where Suzanne Aubert, the founder of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, is buried. Many New Zealanders hope she will one day be canonised also.

Thirteen years later, Pope John Paul II visited Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in the first visit by a Pope to New Zealand.

And Australasia’s first saint, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, made four visits to New Zealand in 1894-95, 1897-98, 1900-01 and 1902.

St Mary visited several cities and towns in the North and South Islands.

In the 1840s, the remains of St Peter Chanel were brought to Russell, in the Bay of Islands, from Futuna where he was martyred. The remains were in New Zealand for eight years before being transported to France.

fb-share-icon
Posted in

Michael Otto

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *