Next step to sainthood for Mother Aubert

Suzanne Aubert

A French nun with strong ties to Whanganui has taken one step closer to sainthood.

Suzanne Aubert, known as Mother Mary Aubert, who lived from 1835 to 1926, has just been declared "venerable" by the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis.

In the church, a venerable is someone who is "heroic in virtue" and church members are encouraged to pray to him or her for a miracle, which is considered a sign of God's will that the person be made a saint, or holy person.

Mother Aubert first came to New Zealand from France in 1860 and spent 16 years - between 1883 and 1899 - at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River, teaching local children, making medicines, and forming a religious order, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion (now the Sisters of Compassion).

She started two hospitals and a soup kitchen in Wellington, and wrote books in French, English and Maori.

Mother Aubert's canonisation - the lengthy process the Catholic Church goes through to declare someone a saint - formally began in 2007 with the appointment of Catholic priest and historian Maurice Carmody as postulator, or advocate for Mother Aubert's cause.

Father Carmody wrote the Positio, a 1000-page document that outlined biographical details about Mother Aubert, as well as her relevance in her own time and today. The Positio has just been approved by the church's theologians, which allowed Mother Aubert to be declared venerable.

"This is the second major step towards canonisation. To be declared a saint, it must be proved that she performed a miracle, and receive the approval of the Pope."

If she does become a saint, she will be the first New Zealand saint, although Australian Mary McKillop, who became a saint in 2010, had strong ties to New Zealand.