Site of Koru Monastery - c1869

This sign marks the site of Koru Monastery, on Koru Road, Oakura. The monastery was established about 1869 by the dynamic Frenchman and Marist priest Father Jean-Baptiste Rolland and closed in 1874.

Father Rolland arrived in Taranaki in April 1865 and as the only Catholic priest in a large district, he became an accomplished horseman, attending to the spiritual needs of far-flung Catholics from New Plymouth to Pātea. When the Taranaki Wars broke out in 1865 Rolland began administering to dead and dying at battles right around the Maunga, including the battle of Te Ngutu o te Manu.

At its height, the Roman Catholic monastery was home to about eight lay brothers and several boys. The brothers were made up of mainly Irish military settlers or disbanded soldiers from the 18^th Regiment. Father Rolland was keen to establish an orphanage or a boy’s school at the site, this never eventuated.

Father Rolland’s assistant at the monastery was Brother Eilas Francis Regis Marin who ran the monastery when Rolland was away on one of this frequent fundraising trips.

It is not clear whether Father Rolland purchased the land for the monastery or simply started building there, as recording land purchases by land deeds didn’t begin locally until 1884. It was however the site for the surveyed Koru township, which never eventuated. The monastery site is near the site of Te Koru Pā.

In 1982 Pat George recorded some notes about the layout of the building at the monastery. These were based on photos he had seen of the building when it was later being used as farmhouse. Apart from the main building, there was also an extensive orchard, a vineyard and a well.

There was also a cemetery on the site with at least six wooden headstones that fell into disrepair. It is unknown what the exact number and names are of those buried here, but Pat George did provide a list of eight names, including that of Brother Marin. In 1961 an investigation of the site was conducted by the local committee of the National Historic Places trust (now Heritage New Zealand) but it yielded little information.

Around 1874 Father Rolland closed the monastery, perhaps due to the deaths in 1872 of his assistant Brother Marin or New Zealand’s Bishop Viard or a lack of funds and support. Father Rolland was transferred to the West Coast where be began teaching at Ahaura College. He died in 13 July 1903 in Reefton.

In 1915 the main building, which was being used by the Mace family as a farm house, caught fire and burned down, leaving very little remains at the site, apart from the filled-in well and the base of a fire place.

A public hall was also built in the 'township' in the 1890s. It was demolished about 1998.

The Koru Monastery sign was unveiled of the New Plymouth West Rotary Club on 18 October 1997. It reads;

Site of Koru Monastery  c1869 

The monastery was built by Father John Baptiste Rolland of unpainted horizontal weatherboard. It was about 18 metres long and 9 metres wide with a verandah extending around three sides. Closed c1874, it was destroyed by fire in 1915 while being used as a farmhouse by the Mace family.

 Confirmed Burials in an unmarked cemetery nearby are:

Carpenter, still born daughter of John & Hannah    d 08.10.1868

Marin, Brother Elias Regis                 d 30.04.1872

Carpenter, still born son of John & Hannah     d 07.07.1872

Carpenter, Hannah              30 yrs   d 21.06.1873

Carpenter, 4 day old infant of John & Hannah   d 22.06.1873

Kehely, Mary          55 yrs    d 05.07.1876

Hamlin, James         14 mths   d 10.02.1879

Madgwick, Ellen         47 yrs   d 12.06.1891

Documents

Monks, Myths and Mystery - Father Rolland and the Monastery at Koru, Rhonda Bartle, Puke Ariki: Taranaki Stories, 18 December 2007

The Koru Monastery, Marc Voullaire, 19 November 1961

Koru Monastery site plaque unveiling pamphlet, Okato & District Historical Society, 18 October 1997

Further information

Koru Monastery: research complied by Bernard Raymond Payne, ARC2011-219, Puke Ariki Collection

Marist Brothers and the Māori, Edward Clisby FMS, 1988