By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — Although St. Gianna Beretta Molla is “known for the final witness she gave by being willing to offer her life for the life of a child,” the 20th century Italian saint and mother, canonized in 2004 by St. John Paul II, had grown up in a family that always strove for holiness, a speaker told an audience attending an Institute of Catholic Theology (ICT) program here.
St. Gianna, who died at age 39 in 1962, shortly after giving birth to her fourth surviving child, was a Catholic physician who earned her medical degree in what at the time was a male-dominated profession, and who strove to reach out to others as she kept awareness of the Kingdom of God before her.
While the saint is revered for her thoroughgoing witness to the sanctity of life, she and her family were solicitous in other ways as well.
Her parents were Third Order Franciscans and she was born on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4, 1922, said Claire Dwyer, a speaker and blogger with an undergraduate degree in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Dwyer is a presenter for the ICT, based at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish here, and spoke for exactly one hour.
The saint was raised in a devout family that wasn’t poor but lived simply, and prayed the rosary and went to Mass daily, Dwyer said in a September 7 talk. “They kind of lived the paragon of voluntary poverty, very Franciscan,” and were concerned for the poor. St. Gianna was the 10th of 13 children born in the family, eight of whom survived, she said.
Because of her faith formation, Gianna was allowed to receive her First Communion at age 5, Dwyer said.
St. Gianna’s sister Amelia died of an illness in 1937 at age 26, “a big blow for Gianna” because of the girls’ closeness, Dwyer said, and the future saint began to pray seriously — not just a daily rosary but a conversation with God.
She made resolutions on a religious retreat that she kept for the rest of her life, Dwyer said. They included doing all things for the Lord, fearing mortal sin as if it were a serpent, asking the Lord to help her understand His great mercy, proposing to obey even if she didn’t feel like doing that, and to regard the way of humiliation as a sure way to holiness.
As a speaker for the Catholic Action movement, St. Gianna did apostolic work with the realization that a life of prayer has to be at the foundation.
Catholic Action originated in Europe with the Catholic laity in the 19th century, Dwyer said, a movement that opposed fascism among other foes of the faith.
By the time she was 20, St. Gianna lost both her parents in 1942 within four months of each other, Dwyer said, in the middle of World War II.
She enrolled in medical school in Milan but moved to nearby Pavia for her studies because of less danger from wartime bombings there, Dwyer said — a time “when their world was falling apart around them.”
St. Gianna pondered whether God wanted her to be a medical missionary in Brazil, where she had a brother who was a Capuchin priest, Dwyer said, but her family was concerned because Gianna, who suffered health problems, wouldn’t be able to tolerate the heat there. She remained in Italy.
Dwyer said St. Gianna chose pediatric medicine because it enabled her access to mothers she could counsel as well as their children.
When she spoke with an older pregnant woman, she said, “This is something to rejoice in,” not worrying about what others would say about her condition, Dwyer said.
Life still was hard in Italy after WWII, Dwyer said, and patients might compensate her with eggs or chickens instead of money. “She had no shortage of patients . . . people flocked to her office.”
“I want to avoid giving the impression” the future saint was all prayer and work, Dwyer said. “She was always modest but she loved beautiful clothes” and loved art.
When she married Pietro Molla on September 24, 1955, her wedding dress was made from the finest material, Dwyer said, so if she had a son who would become a priest, his vestments could be made from that — although that possibility didn’t come to fruition.
“All her pregnancies were extremely difficult,” with four live births and two miscarriages, Dwyer said. “. . . Even though motherhood had challenges, she was so grateful to be a mother.”
In the second month of her fourth pregnancy, she was diagnosed with a fibroid tumor which she elected to have removed while continuing the pregnancy, Dwyer said, citing a medical description of the situation by Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a modern-day priest and neuroscientist.
The future saint made plain that her unborn baby be protected, telling her husband that if it became a matter of having to choose between their lives, the baby must take priority, Dwyer said.
At the conclusion of this pregnancy, doctors had to deliver by Caesarean section, but the mother’s condition soon began to decline, Pacholczyk said.
St. Gianna gave birth on Holy Saturday, April 21, 1962, and died the following Saturday, April 28, Dwyer said, adding that Pacholczyk said that era’s medical care wasn’t as advanced as today’s.
The saint is the patron of mothers, physician, and unborn children, Dwyer said, concluding that the Italian physician “strove her whole life not to offend Our Lord.”
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