The daughter of a well-established Lyonnaise family, Suzanne Aubert defied her family’s traditional aspirations for her to marry. Instead, she trained as a nurse to gain practical skills in preparation for becoming a nun. She came to New Zealand in 1860 and formed the Congregation of the Holy Family to educate Màori children. During a remarkable and often turbulent career this indomitable woman overcame ecclesiastical, bureaucratic, and physical obstacles to undertake missionary work among Pàkehà and Màori in the Hawkes Bay, the Whanganui river settlements, and Wellington.

Fluent in Màori, she developed interests and skills in Màori herbal medicines. Her work focused not only on spiritual education, but also on alleviating sickness and other social effects of poverty, and championing the interests of those least able to fend for themselves. She established homes and hospitals for foundlings, sick children, the old, and disabled, and also provided a soup kitchen, domiciliary visits, and other services. Her uncompromising mission to serve recognised no denominational, racial, or social boundaries, and her compassion touched the lives of so many that her funeral in 1926 is believed to have been the largest ever given a woman in New Zealand.