St. Gianna Molla

Month of Saints - Day 3
Natasha made a request for a saint story, So today, I am switching gears and zooming into the twentieth century with the story of a modern Saint.

St. Gianna was born in Italy in 1922, the tenth of thirteen children. She studied medicine in Milan and, after receiving her diploma, opened her own medical practice where she specialized in pediatrics. She met Peitro Molla in December 1954 and they were married in September of the following year. By 1961, the couple had three children, Gianna had suffered two miscarriages and was pregnant again.

During the second month of this latest pregnancy, Gianna developed a fibroma on her uterus. After examination, the doctors gave her three choices: an abortion, which would save her life and allow her to continue to have children; a complete hysterectomy, which would preserve her life, but take the unborn child's life, and prevent further pregnancy; or removal of only the fibroma, with the potential of further complications. Roman Catholic teaching would have allowed her to obtain a hysterectomy, but would forbid an abortion. Wanting to preserve her child's life, she opted for the removal of the fibroma. After the operation, she continued to experience complications throughout her pregnancy. Gianna made her wishes clear to her family - if a difficult delivery made a decision necessary between saving her life or that of her child, she wanted them to save the baby.

On Good Friday, 1962 (April 21), Gianna went to the hospital where her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, was successfully delivered via cesarean section. However, Gianna continued to have severe pain, and died of septic peritonitis 7 days after the birth.

St. Gianna is the Patron Saint of mothers, physicians, preborn children.  Her feast day is April 28.