Coming Soon to
Lumiere Cinemas
Coming Soon to
Lumiere Cinemas
In 1918 the Sisters of Mercy founded Villa Maria School with 9 pupils in an old house on 16 acres in the country near Christchurch. This film explores the story of the Sisters of Mercy of Christchurch and their pupils, what they were up to and what they got up to in the world…
We made Spirit of Mercy Ngā Wāhine Atawhai for the 100th anniversary of Villa Maria. It is very special to take a glimpse of an institution over a hundred years and see how it moves and breathes and has its being and how it survives and reinvents itself during all manner of times and places and rapidly reconfiguring world events – migrations, depressions, hunger, wars, protests, Vatican II, difficult bishops and clericalism, earthquakes, environmental collapse, epidemics…
"Sr Mary Hanrahan says, mercy is to do with the practice of loving kindness, and the current principal Deborah Broshnan says Mercy is counter-cultural, it is a life choice and it is at the heart of Christianity. Mercy is to do with being aware of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Mercy now include how we treat and care for our environment....