Saint Gianna Beretta Molla
Saint Gianna Beretta Molla (1922–1962) was an Italian pediatrician, wife, and mother who lived her vocation with deep faith and joy. Married to Pietro Molla in 1955, she welcomed the gift of motherhood with gratitude and courage. Over the course of her marriage, Gianna experienced five pregnancies, two of which ended in miscarriage. These quiet but painful losses were part of her journey of sanctity, and she bore them with trust in God's providence and unwavering love for her family.
During her fifth pregnancy, Gianna was diagnosed with a large uterine tumor. She made the heroic decision to prioritize the life of her unborn daughter, choosing to undergo surgery that preserved the child’s life while accepting the risks to her own. Gianna Emanuela was born healthy, but a week later, Gianna died from complications. She was canonized in 2004 by Pope John Paul II and is venerated as a patron saint of mothers, physicians, and unborn children—an enduring witness to the dignity of life and the sacredness of maternal love, even in the face of personal loss.
Saint Gianna has several beautiful quotes about motherhood, love, and sacrifice.
“Love and sacrifice are as intimately connected as sun and light. We cannot love without suffering or suffer without loving. Look how many sacrifices are made by mothers who truly love their children. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood. Did not Jesus die on the Cross for us, out of love for us? Love is affirmed and confirmed with the blood of sacrifice.”
In the midst of uncertainty of her high-risk pregnancy she said:
“Yes, I have prayed so much in these days. With faith and hope I have entrusted myself to the Lord. . . . I trust in God, yes; but now it is up to me to fulfill my duty as a mother. I renew to the Lord the offer of my life. I am ready for everything, to save my baby.”
Less than two years after Gianna’s death, her husband Pietro also experienced the death of his second child, Mariolina at the age of six. When asked about how he responded to the pain of losing his wife and daughter, he said:
I clung to Jesus crucified, to the certainty that Gianna lived with God in Paradise. . . I relieved this mystery of pain in an equally dramatic way when my daughter Mariolina died. Why does it happen? The pain remains a mystery even in the light of our faith, and I have experienced in myself that the only way to accept it is that of Jesus crucified.”
Source: Nursery of Heaven, by Cassie Everts and Patrick O’Hearn