Gianna Beretta Molla was born into heaven on April 28, 1962, 61 years ago.
What do her life and her gift of love teach us today? They teach us that life must always be defended, with strength, love, and courage!
Holiness shines in everyday life
“A wonderful woman, a lover of life, wife, mother, and exemplary professional doctor, she offered her life so as not to violate the mystery of the dignity of life.” These are the words Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini had engraved on the back of the medal minted in honor of the beatification of Gianna Beretta Molla, and they describe her better and more deeply than so many others; they are words that sum up her life and holiness. A holiness built over the years, as a wife, mother, and doctor; a holiness made of everyday life that teaches us how the ordinary can be made to shine with the extraordinary; a holiness “trained” in self-giving and therefore able to face with immense love the greatest gift of all: the gift of life.
“Choose the baby. Save him”
Clear-eyed and graceful, this is how Dr. Gianna Beretta appears to engineer Pietro Molla during their first meetings. They marry in Magenta on September 24, 1955. Gianna is a medical doctor and later specializes in pediatrics, but she treats everyone, especially the old and lonely. Their children are born: Pierluigi, Maria Rita, and Laura.
In September 1961, during her fourth pregnancy, Gianna discovers a fibroid in her uterus: the prospect is to give up motherhood in order not to die, but for Gianna, the little creature she carries in her womb has the right to live, and she alone, at that moment, represents the instrument of Providence through which the child can come into the world: she therefore decides to sacrifice her life for her daughter. “She told me explicitly,” her husband recalls, “with a profound look I will never forget: ‘If you have to choose between me and the baby, do not hesitate: choose, and I insist, the baby. Save him.’” On the morning of April 21, 1962, she gives birth to Gianna Emanuela, and on the morning of April 28, after repeating the prayer, “Jesus, I love you, Jesus, I love you,” she dies.
A Saint of our time
These are the words of Cardinal Angelo Scola on the tenth anniversary of Gianna’s canonization: “We honor an extraordinary Saint, extremely relevant today, highly esteemed by many faithful throughout the world, and of great value to postmodern people, tempted by narcissism and affected by an extreme individualism that no longer sees the connection linking every act of freedom to the good. […] A saintly wife capable of love, balanced in her affections, devoted to her work - particularly the delicate work of a doctor serving the people - a woman with a strong sense of communion with the Church, devoted to young people, capable of communicating the true meaning of life in a simple and profound way. […] [Gianna’s life illuminates] that fragment of Christian thought that endures in the heart of every person and that she, in the field that is the world, invites us to rediscover by changing the way we think about the beauty of marriage and the love between a man and a woman, fruitful in bringing forth life, which must be defended from its beginning to its natural end.”
Unless a grain of wheat dies, it produces much fruit
In this story, in which joy and sorrow are united and intertwined in the knot of love, whereby the sorrow of a mother’s death is linked to the hope and renewal of a new life made possible by that sacrifice, the words of Jesus echo: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Gianna teaches us to defend life and have the courage to give of ourselves. Let us live our daily lives with her same hope, and we will realize the strength and light we are capable of spreading!
