April 19th - ST. GIANNA BERETTA MOLLA By: Anjali Thomas

Today’s commemorated saint is Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. She was born on October 4, 1922 in Magenta near Milano, and was an active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and leader in the Catholic Action movement. Gianna had earned degrees in medicine and Gianna opened a clinic in the town of Mesero, where she met her future husband, engineer Pietro Molla. Shortly before their marriage in 1955, Gianna wrote to Pietro: “Love is the most beautiful sentiment that the Lord has put into the soul of men and women”. In the next four years the Mollas had three children: Pierluigi, Mariolina, and Laura. The next two pregnancies following ended in miscarriage. Early in her sixth pregnancy, doctors had discovered that Gianna had both a child and a tumor in her uterus. She allowed the surgeons to remove the tumor but to not perform the complete hysterectomy that they recommend, which would kill the child. Seven months later in April 1962, Ginna Emanuela Molla was born at the hospital in Monza, but post-operative complications resulted in an infection for her mother. The following week, Gianna Molla died at home in Mesero, where she was buried. Gianna Emanuela went on the become a physician herself. Gianna Beretta Molla was beatified in 1994 and canonized 10 years later. Her Liturgical Feast Day is April 28.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

St. Gianna, you are an incredible example of motherhood, selflessness, and devotion to God. Please fill me with your piety, your charity, and your goodness. St. Gianna, you were filled with love for your children. You understand the longing in my heart for children. You understand my desire for a family filled with love and the giggles of babies. Please, St. Gianna, in your compassion, as a mother, as a wife, as a Saint if true Church, intercede in my behalf to your compassion, as a mother, as a wife, as a Saint of the Church, intercede on my behalf to our Lord, Christ Jesus. Blessed St. Gianna, hear my prayers and ask that God, in his mercy, grant me a healthy baby that I will raise her to be a loving child of God. In Jesus’s name. Amen.