Saint Gianna Beretta Molla: Doctor, Mother, and a Choice

While she was pregnant and needed surgery, a doctor from Magenta, Italy, pleaded with the surgeon to save the life of her unborn child. That doctor, wife, and mother was Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, born in 1922 as Gianna Beretta. The Church remembers her as a mother of a family who lovingly placed the life of the child she was carrying above her own.

Growing into a doctor who served

Her story begins in a large family in Magenta. Gianna was the tenth of 13 children and received the faith and a Christian education from her parents. She believed in Divine Providence, the providence of God watching over her life, and was convinced of the importance of prayer. Her First Holy Communion at the age of five and a half began her habit of receiving the Eucharist often. During her secondary school and university years, she studied diligently while serving the young people of Catholic Action, as well as the elderly and the needy with the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

In 1949 Gianna graduated in medicine and surgery from the University of Pavia. A year later she opened a practice in Mesero, near Magenta, and in 1952 she specialized in pediatrics, that is, children's health, at the University of Milan. She saw her work as a mission and gave special attention to mothers, babies, the elderly, and the poor, while continuing to serve Catholic Action.

A calling to be a wife and mother

There was another question Gianna carried in prayer: her vocation in life. Through her own prayers and the prayers of others, she reflected on that vocation as a gift from God. She chose marriage and became engaged to Pietro Molla. They were married on September 24, 1955, in the Basilica of St. Martin in Magenta, and Gianna was determined to form a truly Christian family. She then became the mother of Pierluigi in 1956, Mariolina in 1957, and Laura in 1959, combining her duties as mother, wife, and doctor with simplicity and balance.

A choice for the child she was carrying

In September 1961, when Gianna was pregnant again and nearly two months along, she was diagnosed with a fibroma in her uterus; Pope John Paul II's address calls it a tumor. She needed surgery and knew that continuing the pregnancy carried risks. Before the operation, she pleaded with the surgeon to save her child's life, and she entrusted herself to prayer and to Divine Providence. The child was saved, and Gianna thanked the Lord.

She lived the following seven months, until the birth, with great strength of spirit and kept faithfully carrying out her duties as mother and doctor. Her official biography records that she worried her baby would be born in pain and asked God to prevent that. A few days before the birth, still trusting in Divine Providence, Gianna declared that she was ready to give her life. She asked the doctors to choose the baby if they had to choose between her and her child.

Death a week after giving birth

On the morning of April 21, 1962, her daughter was born and named Gianna Emanuela. Every effort and treatment was made to save both mother and child. But on the morning of April 28, in terrible pain, Gianna died at the age of 39, after repeatedly expressing her love for Jesus in prayer. The official sources do not explain the medical cause of her death. She was buried in Mesero.