Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla
(October 4, 1922 - April 28, 1962) (Beatified May, 1993)

Last May Pope John Paul II beatified Gianna Beretta Molla. Beatification means a soul is certainly in heaven. Gianna gave up her life that her child might live. For many years Blessed Gianna's life had been a model for those with faith. Gianna Beretta Molla died on April 28, 1962, one week after giving birth to a little girl, Gianna Emanuela, who lives today.

Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta (Milan) on October 4, 1922. From early childhood she was open to faith and Christian values which were taught with firmness and clarity by her parents. She learned early to accept life as a beautiful gift of God and to trust in Divine Providence when doing God's will however difficult. She learned early about the need and effectiveness of prayer.During her high school and university years, Gianna lived her faith by reaching out to young people as an active member of Catholic Action groups. She practiced charity with the old and needy in the apostolate of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. This was done while studying for a degree in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Pavia in 1949. In 1950 she opened an ambulatory clinic in the town of Mesero, near Magerntino. She specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952. She preferred in her practice to help mothers, children and the aged.

Blessed Gianna Beretta saw her role as a doctor as but one off her vocations. She continued to reach out to young people through Catholic Action activities. Her love of life and God's creation showed in her joy of skiing and mountain climbing. She prayed and asked the prayers of others to discern her vocation in life as God would have her live it.

Gianna chose the vocation of marriage and embraced it--with all her innate enthusiasm--to form a "truly Christian family." She was engaged to Pietro Molla, an engineer, and their engagement was a time of great joy and laughter. She continued thanking the Lord and praying. On September 24, 1955, Gianna and Pietro married in the Basilica of St. Martino in Magenta. Gianna became a blissfully happy wife. In November 1956 she became the happy mother of Pierluigi; in December 1957 Mariolina was born, and in July 1959 Laura.
Blessed Gianna knew how to balance her life of mother, wife and doctor with her tremendous joy of life. In 1961 she was pregnant again. Towards the end of her second month she started facing pain and suffering. The doctor diagnosed a fibrous tumor in the uterus.

Knowing as a doctor the risk to her own life, Gianna asked the surgeon to operate in such a way as to save the pregnancy and then she continued trusting in prayer and divine Providence. The baby's life was saved and Gianna thanked God. She then spent the following seven months attending to her duties of mother and doctor with indomitable strength. She feared for the health of the child and kept praying the baby would be well. A couple of days before the birth, although she trusted in God's mercy and Providence, she told her doctor: "If you have to choose, there should be no doubt; choose--I demand it--choose the life of the baby. Save him." On April 21, 1962 Gianna Emanuela was born. On the morning of April 28 Gianna died of the complications in giving life. She was 39 years old.

At her well-attended funeral a unanimous show of deep emotion, faith and prayer was evident. The Servant of God was buried in the cemetery of Mesero. On December 24, at the "Day of Gratitude" in Milan with the Cardinal Archbishop attending, a Gold Medal was presented in memory of Dr. Gianna Beretta Molla because her name gives testimony and exalts the heroism of all mothers and touches the hearts of those who recognize the principles which make a civilization. She was a generous coworker of the Organization of Consultants of Magenta. Led by a Christian spirit and in tune with the deep faith in eternal values, mother of three small children she did not hesitate to sacrifice her life to give life to her last child.

Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, Archbishop of Milan, who was present at the ceremony said, "We are witnessing an unforgettable example which compels us to silence, meditation, admiration, prayer and a desire to be worthy of these souls the Lord sends us, without doubt, in order to give us a message.

"Here is an example of someone who had the courage to follow Jesus' words: that there is no greater love than to give one's life for a loved one. She lived that greater love and imitated more closely the redemptive sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus."

On November 6, 1972, Cardinal Giovanni Colombo promoted the Cause for Beatification of the Servant of God, Gianna Beretta Molla, supported by the Episcopal Conference of Lombardy. He asked for the collecting of documents and acts of information. In 1980 the Archbishop of Milan decreed the introduction of the Cause and started the canonical process of investigating the life and virtues of the Servant of God. In 1986, the Congregation for the Cause of Saints received all the documents and on November 14 published the Decree of Validity which starts the final examination on the life and virtues of the Servant of God.

The Postulatory Letter dated April 11, 1988, signed by Cardinal Giovanni Colombo and 16 bishops of the Bishops' Conference of Lombardy, asked for the glorification of this wife and mother "[w]ho lived as an example of the highest order in this world [which is] unable to understand and inclined to deny the right to life."

Extracts of the Postulatory Letter also state:
"Such a mother and martyr who, out of love for God and in obedience to His commandment 'Thou shall not kill,' bears witness and exalts the heroism of a Christian wife and mother, sacrifices her life to say 'yes' to the Christian duty of love, and out of her respect for life, God's gift to men. This example of wife and mother is what we, Archbishops and Bishops of Lombardy, as well as in the name of the faithful, would like to propose today to the whole Church, at a time when egoism and violence are rampant. It has become very easy to kill, in both hidden and blatant ways. In this our world prone to introduce the legalization of abortion, the Servant of God, Gianna Beretta Molla has become a courageous example of Christian behavior.

This example of lay sanctity, lived in the Sacrament of Matrimony, as the Vatican Council II teaches, will encourage many Christians to seek God in holy Matrimony. The exemplary fame of Christian conduct, lived by Gianna Beretta Molla is valid proof.
"Dr. Molla threw light on the importance of the Christian family, by her life and conscious sacrifice. She threw light on the importance of Christian schools and Catholic Action, in the formation of the human being in Christian values and it gives us guiding principles, to which the Christian subordinates his own life, as Dr. Beretta Molla knowingly did. The heroism of her Christian life will bear fruit."
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Above image & text is from Buttlers lives of the saints

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