Saint Gianna Molla

A pediatrician building an ordinary life

Gianna Beretta Molla was born in Magenta, Italy, on October 4, 1922, the tenth of thirteen children. She earned degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Pavia, eventually specializing in pediatrics. In 1952, she opened her own clinic in the small town of Mesero, where she met an engineer named Pietro Molla. They married in 1955, and over the following years had three children: Pierluigi, Mariolina, and Laura.

A tumor discovered during her fourth pregnancy

Early in her fourth pregnancy, doctors discovered both a child and a tumor in Gianna's uterus. She consented to surgery to remove the tumor, but refused the complete hysterectomy her surgeons recommended — a procedure that would have ended the pregnancy to save her own life. She chose instead to carry the child to term.

A daughter born, a mother lost

Seven months later, in April 1962, her daughter Gianna Emanuela Molla was born at a hospital in Monza. Post-operative complications led to a severe infection, and Gianna died at home the following week, her choice having cost her own life to preserve her child's.

A husband present for her canonization

Gianna Molla was beatified in 1994 and canonized a decade later, in 2004, in Saint Peter's Square — the first time in the Church's history that a husband had ever witnessed his own wife's canonization. She is venerated today as the patron saint of mothers, physicians, and unborn children.