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 Gianna Beretta Molla Scott 1009 (1996) On May 16, 2004, Gianna Beretta Motta was canonized by Pope John Paul II at Saint Peter's in the Vatican. Her feast day has been established on April 28. The National Catholic Register recently published an article providing remembrances of the saint and her family. You can access that article by clicking here. Gianna Beretta was born in 1922 into a large Milanese family of thirteen children, devoted to the Church and as Third Order Franciscans. The family moved to Bergamo and then to Genoa and then back to Bergamo, and she lived with her maternal grandparents for a time. Her family included clergy, religious sisters, and missionaries. Gianna suffered from bouts of illness during her student days, some of which interrupted her study of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. She began medical studies in Milan and received a medical diploma from Pavia College in 1949. Gianna specialized in pediatrics and served poor women and children. She also had an interest in being a medical missionary and to join her brother, Giuseppe, who was serving in Brazil. Motta was active in Catholic Action (Azione Cattolica) and in the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In 1955, she married Pietro Molla (1912-2010), an engineer. They had three children. During a subsequent pregnancy, she developed a fibroma (benign tumor) on her uterus. The medical options were abortion, a hysterectomy, or removal of the fibroma. The first two options were not possible for a faithful Catholic because the procedures would have terminated the child’s life. Molla opted for surgery to remove fibroma and preserve the life of her unborn child, which she declared more important than her life. Her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, was born by caesarian section, but the mother died of septic peritonitis a week thereafter, 28 April 1962. The daughter survived to later become a physician specializing in the care of the elderly. Gianna Beretta Motta was beatified in 1994 and canonized in 2004, both by Pope St. John Paul II, after miracles were documented following intercession to her. Her husband and children attended the canonization. Molla’s shrine is located at Mesero Cemetery, Mesero City, Lombardy. She is the patron of mothers, physicians, wives, families, and unborn children. The health sciences school at the Benedictine University of Mary, near Bismarck, North Dakota, is named after St. Gianna Motta, as the school’s patron. Her daughter, Gianna Emmanuela Molla, a practicing physician, attended the 2019 dedication. In addition, the Saint Gianna & Pietro Molla Maternity Home is located in nearby Warsaw, North Dakota. REFERENCES: |
