Gianna Beretta Molla

Gianna Beretta Molla (4 October 1922 – 28 April 1962) was an Italian Catholic pediatrician. Although aware of possible fatal consequences, Molla refused both an abortion and a hysterectomy during her pregnancy with her fourth child in order to preserve the child's life.

Molla's medical career followed the teachings of the Catholic Church; she believed in following her conscience while coming to the aid of others who required assistance. Molla also dedicated herself to charitable work amongst the elderly and was involved in Catholic Action; she also aided the Saint Vincent de Paul group in their outreach to the poor and less fortunate.

Molla's beatification was celebrated in 1994 and she was canonized as a saint a decade later in mid-2004 in Saint Peter's Square.

Life

Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta on 4 October 1922, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, as the tenth of 13 children (only eight survived into adulthood) to Maria de Micheli (c. 1887 - 1 May 1942) and Alberto Beretta (d. 1 September 1942), both members of the Third Order of Saint Francis. One of her siblings was the Servant of God Enrico Beretta (28 August 1916 – 10 August 2001). Beretta's uncle was Monsignor Giuseppe Beretta and one relative was Father Giovanni Battista Beretta. , her daughter Gianna Emanuela is a doctor of geriatrics.

Miracles

The miracle that led to her beatification involved a 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.

The miracle that led to Molla's canonisation 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. 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.

On 1 November (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.

References

Molla, Gianna Beretta, Love Letters to My Husband, Guerriero, Elio, ed., Pauline Books, 2002.

Life

Miracles

References

External links