This month, we remember on April 9 the arrival of the first Sisters of Mercy to reach New Zealand, after an epic eight-month voyage from the other side of the world. It’s 171 years since Mother Cecilia Maher and her seven companions from Ireland responded to the call, initially from wāhine Māori but conveyed on their behalf by French Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier, to join the mission in this far-flung corner of the world – God’s ‘farthest outpost’ as historian Michael King would later describe it.