Women of Faith · Week 4 · Grades 9–12
Guided Notes: St. Gianna Beretta Molla
- Name
- Date
- Class
Follow along as your teacher presents. Fill in each section when its slide is on the screen.
An ordinary, full life
Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta, near Milan, on October 4, blank 1, the tenth of 13 children. She went to Mass every day, joined Catholic Action, and visited poor and sick people with the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. Both of her parents died in 1942, when she was 19.
She qualified as a doctor in 1949 and as a blank 2 in 1952, and opened an office in Mesero. She treated poor patients for free and called medicine a mission to bodies and souls.
In blank 3 she married Pietro Molla, an engineer. She kept practicing medicine while raising three children, at a time when many women did not work outside the home. She skied, climbed, painted and went to concerts.
The choice
In 1961, two months into her fourth pregnancy, doctors found a fibroma, a tumor that is not cancer, in her womb. She could end the pregnancy. She could have her womb removed, which would kill the baby. Or she could have only the tumor removed, which was risky for her but could save the baby.
Gianna, a blank 4 who knew the dangers, chose the third option. She told her husband and doctors: “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child. I insist on it. Save the baby.”
Gianna Emanuela was born healthy on April blank 5, 1962. Gianna developed a serious infection and died a week later, on April 28, aged 39.
From Magenta to St. Peter’s
Write what happened in each year.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1922 | Write your answer |
| 1942 | Write your answer |
| 1952 | Write your answer |
| 1955 | Write your answer |
| 1961 | Write your answer |
| 1962 | Write your answer |
| 1994 | Write your answer |
| 2004 | Write your answer |
Apply it
A classmate says, “Gianna is a saint because she died for her baby.” Which reply best fits why the Church canonized her? Circle one.
- A Right: a heroic death is what the Church looks for
- B Wrong: it was her medical work that counted most
- C Partly: her daily life of love prepared that choice
- D Wrong: the two miracles alone made her a saint
Why is that the right answer?
Apply it online
Gianna treated patients who could not pay and cared for “bodies and souls.” Which habit best carries that way of seeing people into life online? Circle one.
- A Following mostly people who can improve your image
- B Treating a stranger in the comments as a whole person
- C Staying silent online so that you never give offense
- D Sharing every good cause so others see that you care
Why is that the right answer?
Take a side
Gianna is called a saint of everyday life, yet she is best known for one heroic choice. Which reveals holiness more: the single great sacrifice, or the thousands of ordinary days before it?
My side: ☐ The great sacrifice ☐ The ordinary days
- Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
- Gianna went to daily Mass, served the poor as a teenager and treated patients for free for years.
- Could she have made that choice in 1961 without the habits she built before it?
- Most people will never face a choice like hers. What does her sainthood ask of them?
My strongest reason, with evidence from the slides:
The best argument for the other side, and my response:
Who counts?
Gianna valued a life that could not yet speak, earn or be seen. Feeds and algorithms rank people by attention and usefulness. Where do you see human worth measured by visibility online, and how does Gianna’s way of seeing people answer it?
Think: my idea before we talk
Sentence starters: “Online, people seem to matter more when ...”“Gianna’s choice says a person’s worth comes from ...”“One place I measure people by numbers is ...”
Pair: something my partner said
Let us pray
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15:13
Lord Jesus, you laid down your life for us.
Teach us to see your image in every person, seen and unseen.
Make our ordinary days a school of love.
St. Gianna Beretta Molla, pray for us.
Amen.
My own prayer or intention:
Go and live it
Gianna’s great yes was built from years of small ones: daily prayer, honest work and love for the person in front of her.
One thing I learned today:
One question I still have:
How could the example of St. Gianna Beretta Molla shape the way I live, online and offline?
Challenge: Each day this week, do one hidden act of love that no one will see or like, and treat one person online as someone made in God’s image.