Known to Maori as Hiruharama, Jerusalem was the isolated site where in 1892 Suzanne Aubert (later to become internationally famous as Mother Mary Joseph), established the congregation of the Sisters of Compassion. They became a highly respected charitable nursing/religious order.
A convent remains on the mission property as well as the church which replaced the original building destroyed by fire in 1888, and Sisters of Compassion still care for them.
New Zealand poet James K. Baxter and many of his followers formed a community there in the 1970s and Baxter is buried there.