Gianna Beretta Molla

Gianna Beretta was born on October 4, 1922, in Magenta, near Milan, the tenth of thirteen children in a devout Catholic family. Several of her siblings also pursued religious life; the family's faith was not nominal but structuring. She studied medicine at the University of Pavia, specializing in pediatrics, and in 1950 opened a practice in Mesero, near her hometown, where she cared for children and expectant mothers. She was also active in the women's and youth branches of Catholic Action, and was known in her community as someone whose faith was visible in her work without being worn on her sleeve.

In 1955 she married Pietro Molla, an engineer. They had three children. She continued her medical practice throughout, balancing clinic hours with family life. By all accounts the combination was ordinary in its texture — housework, school schedules, weekend Mass — and that ordinariness became, after her death, part of what the Church meant to propose about her.

In September 1961, two months into her fourth pregnancy, she was found to have a fibroma of the uterus — a benign muscular tumor that nonetheless required treatment. Her physicians presented three options: hysterectomy, which would end the pregnancy; removal of the fibroma along with the pregnancy; or myomectomy alone, a more limited surgery that preserved the child but left Gianna at greater risk. She chose the myomectomy. She told her physicians that if it came to a choice between her life and the child's, the child should be chosen.

The baby, Gianna Emanuela, was born by caesarean section on April 21, 1962, in good health. Gianna developed septic peritonitis in the days following and died on April 28, a week after the birth. She was thirty-nine.

Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter, became a physician. She was present in Rome when her mother was beatified on April 24, 1994, and again when she was canonized on May 16, 2004 — alongside her father Pietro, who was also present. Pietro Molla lived until 2010.