Stone & Incense Search
Start hereCurious, or no faithEvangelical, Pentecostal or ProtestantFrom another faithSomeone I love is CatholicBecoming CatholicI was Catholic once Today in the ChurchLibraryHard questionsVoices of the revivalTake the next stepAboutSources & methodSupport the site
The saints

St. Gianna Beretta Molla

A pediatrician, wife and mother who chose her unborn daughter’s life over her own.

Feast: 28 April (date from the Roman Martyrology; not on the universal calendar) · 1922 to 1962 · The modern era · Magenta and Mesero, Italy

Read the story 1 min read
Black-and-white photograph of St. Gianna Molla smiling and hugging a small child.

Unknown author, 1957. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Mesero, near Milan, 1962

Gianna was a doctor in a small Italian town, married to an engineer, Pietro, and the mother of three.1

She loved skiing, music and fashion, and wrote warm letters to her husband.1

Pregnant with her fourth child, she was found to have a tumor in her uterus.

Patron of doctors1; wives1; unborn children1

01St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Save the baby

She chose surgery that would protect the baby, knowing the risk to herself.1

After her daughter was born she died, and her husband and children were at her canonization.1

Live it this week

Pray for a mother in a hard pregnancy

Gianna is the patron of unborn children. This week, help a pregnancy center or a mom you know who is expecting: diapers, a meal, a ride, a listening ear.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Gianna Beretta Molla”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.