The image of the Madonna and Child rightly permeates our culture. The notion that the Almighty, Creator of the Universe, gave Himself to be born to a young woman in wretched circumstances in ancient Bethlehem has provoked timeless wonder.
That the young woman did such a good job of nurturing Him is testament to God’s wisdom in choosing her.
Mary and Joseph her husband cared for that child in the womb; as refugees in self-imposed Egyptian exile; and throughout childhood. Mary risked everything for her Son. She dared to stay true to him even at the foot of the cross (John 19:25-27), and she met with his disciples after his ascension, when they were still living in fear of their lives (Acts 1:14).
The consistency of Mary and Joseph’s ethical commitment to the life and wellbeing of their child is celebrated each Christmas season at the Feast of the Holy Family.
Thirty-nine-year-old (Saint) Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian born in 1922, demonstrated the same Marian-like commitment to the life and wellbeing of her child in 1962, and suffered the ultimate price for doing so.
Gianna was a doctor specialising in paediatrics. Born into a large, traditional, Catholic family and raised in the faith, Gianna loved skiing and mountaineering. She was one of a generation of women who did not shy away from physical labour and enjoyment of outdoor sports; in this, she benefitted from early feminist movements and example of pioneering women such as Amelia Earhart and Katharine Hepburn – women making global names for themselves by virtue of their achievement in extraordinary, public careers.
But she was different from them in that unique, Christian way which is the identity-marker of saints: Gianna was a woman devoted to the needs of others. She was a life-long volunteer in Catholic Action and the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, and, having obtained degrees in medicine and surgery, and having specialised in paediatrics by 1952, her own medical clinic was dedicated to the support of mothers and children, especially poor ones.
Then, in 1962, during the pregnancy that would bring her fourth child into the world, Gianna faced a life-defining dilemma. A painful fibroma had developed in her uterus. She had the options to abort the child and save her own life, or risk surgery which would threaten hers but save the life of the child.
This is the sort of dilemma men never have to face except vicariously; women face a terrible, experiential isolation in such a circumstance.
But, from the first, Gianna knew her priority. She insisted that every action be taken to save the life of the baby in her womb, even if it were at the expense of her own. The doctors operated; the fibroma was removed, but the remainder of the pregnancy was beset with complications.
Again, Gianna insisted, at the point of delivery, that the baby must be saved before herself. The child was born, and survived, on 21 April 1962. Seven days later Gianna Molla died as a result of the difficult child-birth.
The day has been celebrated as her Feast Day since her canonisation in 2004.
Gianna’s husband, Pietro Molla – a loving ‘Joseph’ to her ‘Mary’ – was able to attend the canonisation ceremony, and he went there with his children, including the fourth, Gianna Emanuela, for whom her mother had made the ultimate sacrifice. A sacrifice completely consistent with her entire Christian faith.
Peter Fleming is author of The Unexpected Light: Reflections from a Year of Mercy (2017, Morning Star Publishing).
St Gianna Beretta Molla
1922-1962
Feast Day: 28 April