Gianna Beretta Molla

Life events

1. Born — 1922

   Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta on 4 October 1922, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the tenth of thirteen children of Maria de Micheli and Alberto Beretta, both members of the Third Order of Saint Francis.

2. Educated — 1942

   In 1942 Beretta began medical studies in Milan, active concurrently in Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action). She received a medical diploma on 30 November 1949 from the Pavia college and subsequently opened a paediatric practice in Mesero in 1950.

3. Educated — 1952

   Beginning 7 July 1952, Beretta specialised in paediatrics at the University of Milan, consolidating the clinical focus that would define the remainder of her medical career.

4. Other — 1955

   Gianna Beretta married Pietro Molla, an engineer she had met in December 1954, on 24 September 1955 at the Basilica di San Martino in Magenta; the couple later had four children.

5. Other — 1961

   During the second month of her fourth pregnancy in 1961, Molla was diagnosed with a fibroma on her uterus. Presented with three options — abortion, hysterectomy, or fibroma removal alone — she chose removal of the fibroma to preserve the child's life.

6. Died — 1962

   Molla's fourth child, Gianna Emanuela, was delivered via Caesarean section on 21 April 1962 (Holy Saturday). Molla died of septic peritonitis one week later, on 28 April 1962.

7. Other — 1994

   Pope John Paul II beatified Molla on 24 April 1994, following investigation of a healing in Grajaú, Brazil, and the issuance of a decree of validation by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 27 September 1991.

8. Other — 2004

   Molla was proclaimed a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II on 16 May 2004 in Saint Peter's Square; her husband Pietro and their children were present, the first time a husband had witnessed his wife's canonisation.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Molla was a trained paediatrician who held a medical diploma from Pavia (1949) and a specialisation from the University of Milan (1952), practising in Mesero throughout the 1950s. (certain)
• When diagnosed with a uterine fibroma during her fourth pregnancy, Molla rejected both abortion and hysterectomy and accepted only fibroma removal, telling doctors that the child's life took precedence over her own. (certain)
• Pietro Molla, her husband, was present at her canonisation on 16 May 2004 — the first recorded instance of a husband witnessing his wife's canonisation in the Roman Catholic Church. (certain)
• The miracle accepted for her beatification involved Lucia Sylvia Cirilo, a Protestant woman in Grajaú, Maranhão, Brazil, whose rectal-vaginal fistula was reported healed in November 1977 after nurses invoked Molla's intercession. (likely)
• Her daughter Gianna Emanuela, born via Caesarean section on 21 April 1962 — the child whose life Molla chose to preserve — became a doctor of geriatrics and as of 2017 was still practising. (certain)