Members of the Order’s New Zealand Magistral Delegation recently visited the Auckland Diocese’s Archive for a presentation on the life of French-born missionary Bishop Jean-Baptiste François Pompallier, the first Catholic bishop in New Zealand and the first member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre in New Zealand. Bishop Pompallier had arrived in New Zealand in 1838 with a small band of Marist missionaries, as Vicar Apostolic of Western Oceania, but made New Zealand the centre of his operations. He returned to France in 1868 and died in Puteaux, near Paris, in 1871, aged 70. His exhumed remains were returned to New Zealand in 2001, and they were re-interred in a small church near where he started his missionary activities.

Accompanying the presentation by the archivist was a selection of the carefully preserved material by and about the bishop, including his travelling altar and his 16th century illuminated Book of Hours. A remarkable highlight was seeing Bishop Pompallier’s original investiture diploma, presented to him in Jerusalem by the first resident Patriarch, Joseph Valerga. This must surely be a unique document dating back to 6 October 1848. This treasured document represents a significant historical and spiritual link between the Order and New Zealand and the Holy Land.