Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla visited the Parish of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, named for her mother, during her first trip to the United States, on July 13.
Dr. Molla’s birth led to the canonization of her mother, Gianna Beretta Molla, as a saint in 2004. Her mother, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, was an Italian pediatrician, wife and mother, who refused an abortion and hysterectomy during her fourth pregnancy, even while knowing that carrying the child endangered her own life. Tragically, in 1962, at the age of 39, she died from complications six days after giving birth to her youngest daughter, Gianna Emanuela.
Her canonization was the first time that a saint was canonized while the saint’s husband and children were living and attended the canonization. Dr. Molla, a geriatrician, directs the St. Gianna Beretta Molla Foundation in Mesero, Italy.
St. Gianna Beretta Molla Parish, formed through the merger of St. Bernadette Church in Northfield and St. Peter Church in Pleasantville, celebrated its first anniversary on May 5.