I would say the 5 most popular Italian saints are St Francis of Assisi, St Pio of Pietrelcina, St Anthony, St Maria Goretti and St Gianna Beretta Molla. Today we honor this last saint canonized in 2004 after sacrificing her life for her baby daughter, Gianna Emmanuela.
Born on October 4, 1922, Gianna Beretta was the
10th of 13 children, even though only 8 of the siblings survived infancy. She
grew up in Bergamo, Italy where she was very active in the Catholic Action
movement. In 1942, in the midst of the chaos of World War II she started her
studies in Milan and graduated as a doctor in 1949, specializing in
paediatrics. She actually wanted to go to Brazil to work as a paediatrician
with her brother, a missionary priest, but her health prevented her from doing
this. So she worked happily as a doctor, eventually meeting her future husband
Pietro Molla, whom she married in 1955. They had 3 children within 5 years, and
in 1961, she was pregnant with her 4th child. During the pregnancy, she
developed a fibroma in her uterus, and the doctors suggested her to have an
abortion to save her life. But she continued with her pregnancy and the baby
was born on April 21 1962, Easter Saturday. Gianna made the ultimate sacrifice
for her daughter, and she got weaker and weaker and died a week later, on April
28, 1962. Her daughter Gianna Emmanuela became a paediatrician herself, and was
present with her father and two other siblings at her mother’s beatification in
1994. Another sister had died in 1964, 2 years after her mother.
The miracle that certified her canonization was
done on a Brazilian woman Elizabetta Comparini, who in her 16th week of
pregnancy, experienced a tear in her placenta, losing all the amniotic fluid.
Praying to Gianna Beretta Molla, she continued with her pregnancy and gave
birth to a healthy baby, defying all the negative prognosis the doctors had
given her. Gianna was proclaimed a Saint by Pope St John Paul II on May 16,
2004, with her husband and three children present. She has since became the
patron for pro-life and for pregnant women, and a great statement against
abortion.
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