Gianna Beretta Molla

In 1950, Gianna Beretta opened a medical clinic in Mesero, near Magenta. Anxious to improve her skills to better serve others, she specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952. For her, medicine was not merely a profession, but a true mission of love and apostolate. She dedicated herself particularly to mothers, children, the elderly, and the most destitute, often refusing to charge poor families for her consultations. Alongside her medical career, she reflected at length on her vocation. She initially considered leaving as a lay missionary to Brazil to join her brother, Father Alberto Beretta, a Capuchin priest and doctor in Grajaú. However, due to her fragile health, her spiritual director advised her to abandon this project, seeing it as a sign that God was calling her to another path. Gianna then chose the vocation of marriage with enthusiasm, eager to form a deeply Christian family. In December 1954, she met the engineer Pietro Molla. They became engaged in April 1955 and were married on September 24, 1955, in the Basilica of Saint Martin in Magenta. A modern, dynamic, and radiant woman, she harmoniously balanced her life as a wife, mother, and doctor, while cultivating her passions for music, painting, fashion, skiing, and mountaineering. The couple gave birth to three children: Pierluigi in November 1956, Maria Zita (Mariolina) in December 1957, and Laura in July 1959. After suffering two painful miscarriages, Gianna found herself pregnant for the fourth time in 1961. During the second month of this pregnancy, doctors discovered a large uterine fibroid (a benign tumor). As a doctor, Gianna understood the gravity of the situation perfectly. Three medical options were available to her: a complete hysterectomy, a therapeutic abortion, or a surgical operation aimed solely at removing the fibroid while attempting to preserve the pregnancy. Out of fidelity to her faith and maternal love, Gianna chose the third option without hesitation. The operation was successful, and she spent the following seven months in prayer and confident abandonment to Providence. A few days before the delivery, she firmly declared to her husband and the doctors: "If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose, and I demand it, the child. Save him." On April 21, 1962 (the morning of Holy Saturday), her daughter Gianna Emanuela was born in good health by cesarean section at the maternity hospital in Monza. However, major post-operative complications occurred in the form of septic peritonitis. Despite all the care provided, Gianna Beretta Molla passed away on the morning of April 28, 1962, in her home in Ponte Nuovo di Magenta, at the age of 39, whispering: "Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you."

The reputation for holiness of Gianna Beretta Molla spread rapidly after her death, carried by the testimony of her heroic life and ultimate sacrifice. In 1972, Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, Archbishop of Milan, initiated the cause for beatification with the approval of the Lombardy Episcopal Conference. The diocesan inquiry was officially opened in 1980 by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. The first miracle accepted for her beatification occurred on October 22, 1977, in Grajaú, in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. Lucia Sylvia Cirilo, a 27-year-old Protestant woman, was suffering from a severe rectovaginal fistula that was inoperable locally after giving birth to a stillborn child. Too weak to be transported over the 600 kilometers of dirt roads leading to the hospital in São Luís, she was considered terminal. A Capuchin nun, Sister Bernardina, prayed to Gianna Beretta Molla (sister of Father Alberto Beretta, who had helped found the hospital in Grajaú) and placed her image under the patient's pillow. Lucia was instantly and completely healed, a recovery declared scientifically inexplicable by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1992. The second miracle, necessary for her canonization, took place in 1999-2000 in Franca, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Elizabeth Comparini Arcolino, sixteen weeks pregnant, suffered a premature rupture of membranes resulting in the total loss of amniotic fluid. Doctors considered the survival of the fetus impossible and recommended a therapeutic abortion to avoid a fatal infection for the mother. Elizabeth and her husband Cesar refused the abortion and invoked the intercession of Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla. Against all medical expectations, the pregnancy continued without amniotic fluid, and in May 2000, Elizabeth gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl, named Gianna Maria. This miracle was approved by the Vatican in December 2003.

Gianna Beretta Molla was beatified on April 24, 1994, by Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square in Rome, on the occasion of the International Year of the Family. She was canonized on May 16, 2004, by the same Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square. This ceremony was a historic event without precedent: for the first time in the history of the Church, the spouse of a saint (Pietro Molla, then 91 years old) as well as her children (including Gianna Emanuela, the child saved at the cost of her life) were present at the canonization of their wife and mother. Her liturgical memorial is set for April 28, the day of her birth into Heaven.

The spirituality of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla is characterized by a faith incarnated in daily life, the sanctification of the present moment, and an unconditional love for human life. She did not seek heroism in isolation, but lived every stage of her existence—as a young girl, student, doctor, wife, and mother—as a response of love to God's call. Her daily devotion to the Eucharist and her absolute trust in Providence were the foundation upon which her final sacrifice rested. Pope Paul VI defined her act as a "deliberate immolation" during the Angelus of December 23, 1973, highlighting the deep link between her sacrifice and the mystery of Calvary and the Eucharist. John Paul II presented her as an exceptional model for contemporary families, a messenger of divine love, and a protector of unborn life. Saint Gianna Beretta Molla is today the patron saint of mothers, physicians, pregnant women, and unborn children. Her legacy is perpetuated notably through the Saint Gianna Beretta Molla and Pietro Molla Foundation, presided over by Cardinal Raymond Burke, as well as through the pro-life commitment of her daughter, Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla, who travels the world to bear witness to the holiness of her parents.