Ever since hearing about St. Gianna, I've wanted to learn more about her life and about her remarkable sacrifice of love. So I was quite excited to choose "St. Gianna Beretta Molla: A Modern Day Hero of Divine Love" as my first book to review for the Catholic Company.
The story of Gianna's life and death provides a huge inspiration and assurance that the saints are not at all holy people in the distant past, with whom we in the modern era have little in common. She was certainly a devout and very holy woman, and she also comes across as someone who you might know in real life as a smart, talented person and a warm, devoted friend and family member. Gianna's life reminds us that we truly are all called to be saints, and her blessed self-sacrifice is the perfect antidote to our modern-day tragic culture of death.
Gianna was born in Italy on October 4, 1922. As well as being a wife and mother, she was a physician with her own medical practice. In 1961, pregnant with her fourth child and having lost two children to miscarriage, Gianna was diagnosed with a large uterine fibroid tumor. The only sure way to save her life was to remove her uterus, including her unborn child, along with the tumor. Fully understanding the implications of her risky choice, Gianna opted to leave her baby and her uterus intact, having only the tumor removed.
Throughout her pregnancy, Gianna was quite insistent that in the case of having to choose between her life and the baby's, her husband should not hesitate to choose the baby's. Seven months later, in April 1962, she gave birth to baby Gianna Emanuela. A few hours later she developed a high fever and extreme abdominal pain; she died one week later, at the age of 39. In May 2004, Pope John Paul II officially declared her a saint.
This 32-page booklet tells Gianna's story completely and succinctly. It includes beautiful pictures of her with her family. (Imagine that we are in the age that we have color--digital, even!--pictures of modern saints!) It includes an introductory note by her husband and a foreword by Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke of Saint Louis. Following St. Gianna's story, the book includes some of her writings, and some prayers asking her intercession.
I found this to be a delightful book, and it confirmed my thoughts that St. Gianna is an amazing example of holiness in our own time, who can be especially helpful and powerful to us today.
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