Patron Saint of mothers and physicians, Physican, Surgeon. Born in Magenta, Milan, Italy the tenth of thirteen children. She was strongly religious from early childhood and was a member of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. She received degrees in both medicine and surgery in 1949 from the University of Pavia. She specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952. She saw medicine as her means of serving God. While some thought she should enter a convent, she loved skiing and hikes in the mountains and knew that her calling was marriage and raising a family. On September 24, 1955 she married Pietro Molla in Saint Martin's Basilica in Magenta. She continued her medical career while raising three children and during her pregnancy with their fourth child she was diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst. Her surgeon recommended an abortion to save her life, she refused and died a week after giving birth to a healthy child. That child today is a physician herself. On July 6, 1991, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, issued the Decree of Heroicity of Virtue of the Servant of God. On December 21, 1992 the Decree of the Miracle was proclaimed. Finally, on April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II beatified Gianna Beretta Molla at St. Peter's Square in Rome.
Patron Saint of mothers and physicians, Physican, Surgeon. Born in Magenta, Milan, Italy the tenth of thirteen children. She was strongly religious from early childhood and was a member of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. She received degrees in both medicine and surgery in 1949 from the University of Pavia. She specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952. She saw medicine as her means of serving God. While some thought she should enter a convent, she loved skiing and hikes in the mountains and knew that her calling was marriage and raising a family. On September 24, 1955 she married Pietro Molla in Saint Martin's Basilica in Magenta. She continued her medical career while raising three children and during her pregnancy with their fourth child she was diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst. Her surgeon recommended an abortion to save her life, she refused and died a week after giving birth to a healthy child. That child today is a physician herself. On July 6, 1991, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, issued the Decree of Heroicity of Virtue of the Servant of God. On December 21, 1992 the Decree of the Miracle was proclaimed. Finally, on April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II beatified Gianna Beretta Molla at St. Peter's Square in Rome.
Bio by: D C McJonathan-Swarm
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