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Murray
Hill Institute |
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| A Modern Role Model: Mother, Physician, Saint | |
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Recently in the news, Gianna Beretta Molla is an excellent role model for women facing difficult choices. Born in 1922 in a small town near Milan, Italy into a reasonably well-to-do family with several siblings, she was inspired to study medicine notwithstanding the difficulties of war-torn Italy in the early 1940s. She succeeded in becoming a physician, surgeon and pediatrician. She started her own practice, sharing an office with her brother, also a doctor. Dedicated to her patients, rich and poor, she treated all with respect, dignity and professional expertise. At age 33, Gianna married an engineer, Pietro Molla, whose high-level corporate responsibilities demanded much time away from home. Their correspondence over the years helps readers understand their holiness and dedication to one another, family, and work. Soon Gianna became the mother of three beautiful and lively children. With assistance from a caring, trusted housekeeper and various members of an extended family, Gianna resumed her professional duties as doctor after the birth of her children. At times her husband accompanied her on emergency calls in the middle of night. In her married life she enjoyed life's best—from concerts, theatre and opera at La Scala in Milan to skiing, hiking and mountain climbing in the Italian Alps. But a critical moment awaited with her fourth pregnancy. Knowing that she had developed a cancerous tumor, she agreed to an operation provided that the doctors—one of whom was her brother—would do no harm to the unborn child. The operation took place but was not entirely successful. With difficulty but serenity, on Holy Saturday, Gianna gave birth to a healthy baby girl, named after her mother, Gianna Emanuela. Following excruciating suffering the mother died on April 28, 1962, at age 39. Gianna Beretta Molla was canonized in Rome on May 16, 2004, in the presence of her children and Pietro Molla, who at age 92 became the first living husband of a saint! The daughter, Gianna Emanuela, became a doctor herself, no doubt inspired by her mother whose virtuous life stands as a shining example of a wife, mother and professional woman. The new saint's biography, Una Vita per la Vita (A Life for Life), is available in translation under the title: Gianna Beretta Molla, A Woman's Life. ______________________________________________________________________ |
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