Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta, Italy, on October 4, 1922. After earning degrees in medicine and surgery, she specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952. While working in the field of medicine – which she considered a “mission” and practiced as such – she increased her generous service to Catholic Action, especially the young.
Gianna met Pietro Molla while attending the first Mass of a priest friend. They spent a lot of time together, and eventually became engaged. During this time, Pietro’s job took him away from Gianna, but they would faithfully write love letters to each other. Gianna once said that they had a “spiritual togetherness,” even though they didn’t see each other very much during that time.
She married Pietro Molla on September 24, 1955. In 1956 to her great joy she became mother of Pierluigi; in 1957 of Mariolina; in 1959 of Laura. She met the demands of mother, wife, doctor, and her passion for life with simplicity and great balance.
In September 1961, towards the end of the second month of pregnancy with her fourth child, physicians diagnosed a serious fibroma in the uterus that required surgery. The surgeon suggested that Gianna have an abortion in order to save her own life. But ready to give her life in order to save that of her child, Gianna underwent a risky surgery: “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate. Choose the child – I insist on it. Save the baby.”
On April 21, 1962, Gianna Emanuela was born. Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of them, on April 28, amid unspeakable pain and after repeated exclamations of “Jesus, I love you,” Gianna died. Her husband Pietro described Gianna’s life as “an act and perennial action of faith and charity; it was a non-stop search for the will of God for every decision and for every work, with prayer and meditation, Holy Mass and the Eucharist.”
A model for today’s married career women and all mothers demonstrated by her exemplary Christian lifestyle, daily attendance at Mass and Holy Communion from early childhood, her work as a doctor, for many year her volunteer work with various Christian groups and making a loving Christian home for her husband and children.
Gianna Beretta Molla was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 24, 1994. Pope John Paul II praised her heroic virtue in sacrificing herself to give life to the child in her womb. She was canonized on May 16, 2004. During his homily at Gianna’s canonization Pope John Paul II said following the example of Christ, who “having loved his own … loved them to the end”, this holy mother of a family remained heroically faithful to the commitment she made on the day of her marriage, the extreme sacrifice she sealed with her life testifies that only those who have the courage to give of themselves totally to God and to others are able to fulfill themselves. Pope John Paul II also said that her witness was a hymn to life, possibly only after a life of preparation. St. Gianna continues to remind the church and the world of the necessity of a consistent ethic of life, from the earliest to the final moments of human life.
Activities to Try:
+ Volunteer at the Gianna Center in Edmonton
+ Pray to St. Gianna for the lives of all babies, especially those who are aborted
St. Gianna Beretta Molla
Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to befall me, make me only know Your will. My most sweet Jesus, infinitely merciful God, most tender Father of souls, and in a particular way of the most weak, miserable, infirm which You carry with special tenderness between Your divine arms, I come to You to ask You, through the love and merits of Your Sacred Heart, the grace to comprehend and to do always Your holy will, the grace to confide in you, the grace to securely through time and eternity in Your loving divine arms. Amen.
St. Gianna
Pray for Us
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