Gianna Beretta Molla

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Lombardia, Italy
Feast28 April
PatronageDoctors, mothers, wives, families, unborn, World Meeting of Families 2015 (co-patron)
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Gianna Beretta Molla (4 October 1922 – 28 April 1962) was an

termination of pregnancy and a hysterectomy
during her pregnancy with her fourth child.

Molla's medical career followed the teachings of the

Saint Vincent de Paul group in their outreach to the poor and less fortunate.[2][3]

Molla's

Saint Peter's Square.[2]

Life

Gianna Beretta was born in

Basilica di San Martino on 11 October.[3]

When she was three, the Berettas relocated to

Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, but 1938 to 1939 saw a suspension in her studies when she was ill health.[2]

In 1942, she began her studies in medicine in Milan. Outside of her schooling, she was active in the Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action) movement. Beretta received a medical diploma on 30 November 1949 from the Pavia college and in 1950, she opened an office in Mesero, close to her hometown, where she specialized in pediatrics.[2] Beretta hoped to join her brother Giuseppe, a priest in the Brazilian missions, where she intended to offer gynecological services to poor women, but her chronic ill health made this impractical. Instead, she continued her practice. Beginning 7 July 1952, she specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan.[3]

In December 1954 she met Pietro Molla (1912 – 3 April 2010), an engineer, and the two became engaged the following 11 April.

Saint Peter's Square as part of their honeymoon
. Molla gave birth to four children:

Her sisters-in-law were Luigia (a nun) and Teresina (d. 1950).

In 1961, during the second month of her fourth and final pregnancy, Molla developed a fibroma on her uterus. The doctors gave her three choices following an examination: an abortion, a complete hysterectomy, or the removal of the fibroma alone.

Molla opted for the removal of the fibroma since she wanted to preserve her child's life. She told the doctors that her child's life was more important than her own. On the morning of Holy Saturday, 21 April 1962, Molla was sent to the hospital where her fourth child, Gianna Emanuela, was delivered via a Caesarean section. But Molla continued to have severe pain and died of septic peritonitis one week after giving birth, on the morning of Easter Saturday, 28 April.[4] As of 2017, her daughter Gianna Emanuela is a doctor of geriatrics.[3]

Her husband wrote a biographical account of her life in April 1971 and dedicated it to his children. He often told Gianna Emanuela that her mother's choice was one of conscience as both a loving mother and a doctor.[1]

Canonization

The Mausoleum where her tomb is located

The Cardinal

Archbishop of Milan Giovanni Colombo promoted the opening of a canonization cause on 6 November 1972 and it took a step forward on 11 April 1978 when Colombo and sixteen other bishops filed a petition to Pope Paul VI
asking for him to initiate the cause of canonization.

The

Venerable on 6 July 1991 after John Paul II confirmed that she had lived a model Christian life of heroic virtue
.

Saint Patrick Catholic Church (Columbus, Ohio) - ceiling mural

Molla's beatification, like all others, depended upon a miracle, often a healing, that science and medicine cannot seem to explain. One such case was investigated in

Grajaú in Brazil from 30 November 1981 until 15 January 1982. Two additional supplementary processes were also held during this time, with the first spanning from 30 October 1986 to November 1986, and the other from 8 August 1987 until 2 November 1987. The CCS issued their decree of validation at the closure of these three investigations on 27 September 1991. Medical experts [citation needed
] approved this miracle on 5 March 1992, while theologians confirmed that the healing came after appealing for Molla's intercession on 22 May 1992. The CCS members confirmed the findings of these two bodies on 17 November 1992. John Paul II issued his approval of this healing on 21 December 1992, and beatified Molla on 24 April 1994.

But a second miracle was needed for her to be elevated to sainthood. A case came to the postulation's attention from Franca, Brazil, which promoted a diocesan investigation from 31 May to 1 August 2001. The closure of this investigation saw documents sent to the CCS, who validated the process on 22 February 2002. Medical experts [citation needed] approved this miracle on 10 April 2003, with the theologians following on 17 October 2003, and the CCS members on 16 December 2003. John Paul II granted the final approval on 20 December 2003, and formalization came at an ordinary consistory held on 19 February 2004. Molla was proclaimed as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in Saint Peter's Square on 16 May 2004.

Molla's husband and their children were present at the canonization. It was the first time that a husband had ever witnessed his wife's canonization.[5]

Miracles

The

Protestant Brazilian woman Lucia Sylvia Cirilo who gave birth to a stillborn child on 22 October 1977. Cirilo was discharged from the hospital, but began suffering from severe pains within a week that forced her brother to take her to the Saint Francis of Assisi hospital in Grajaú, Maranhão on 9 November. The doctors found an unseen complication that caused a rectal-vaginal fistula, one that the hospital was not equipped to treat. She was told that she would need to be moved to the hospital at São Luís, but she believed that she would not survive the trip there. One of the nurses, Sister Bernardina de Manaus, was so distressed about this that she appealed for the intercession of Molla while looking at a small picture of her. The nun asked two other nurses to follow her lead and the group soon discovered that Cirilo's pain had disappeared, leaving the doctors amazed at the fact that the fistula had healed in full. [citation needed
]

The miracle that led to Molla's canonization involved another Brazilian Catholic woman, Elizabeth Comparini Arcolino. She was sixteen weeks pregnant in 2000 when she sustained a tear in her placenta that drained her womb of all amniotic fluid.[6] Her doctors told her that the child's chances of survival were impossible because she was too early in her pregnancy. Arcolino said she appealed to the then-Blessed Molla asking for her intercession and was able to deliver her child in perfect health. [citation needed]

Legacies

The late Molla's example was hailed as courageous by Catholics after her death. Pope Paul VI hailed her protection and love of life in his Angelus address on 23 September 1973.

Gianna Beretta Molla is the inspiration behind the Gianna Center in

pro-life beliefs. Saint Gianna Beretta Molla is also the eponym of Saint Gianna's Maternity Home in Warsaw, North Dakota
.

In September 2015, the saint's daughter Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla read a letter before Pope Francis during the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. The letter, which her mother wrote to her father not long before their marriage, highlighted the Christian virtues of marriage and called him and herself as a couple to serve God in a "saintly way" through what she called "the sacrament of love".[7]

On November 1 (All Saints Day), 2019, Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla was the featured guest at the University of Mary's Candlelight Gala and granted permission (on behalf of the Molla family) for the university to name its flagship School of Health Sciences after her mother, entrusting the students and faculty to St. Gianna as patroness.[8]

References

  • Molla, Gianna Beretta, Love Letters to My Husband, Guerriero, Elio, ed., Pauline Books, 2002.
  1. ^ a b c d "The Daughter of a Saint Speaks of Her Mother's Holiness". National Catholic Register. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Gianna Beretta Molla (1922–1962)". Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Saint Gianna Beretta Molla". Saints SQPN. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  4. ^ "Saint Gianna Beretta Molla". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  5. ^ "Pope canonises pro-life heroine". BBC News. 16 May 2004. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  6. ^ Thomas J. McKenna. "Miracles Approved for the Canonization of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla". Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  7. ^ "Daughter of saint inspires crowd in Philadelphia". The Columbus Dispatch. 26 September 2015. Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  8. ^ Saint Gianna School of Health Sciences (University of Mary)

External links

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