Another Example of Married Saints

Not quite saints, yet. The process of Beatification began in 2001. This couple is my generation. They lived in my times, my culture, my world. But their lives are so Christian. If they aren't saints, then no one can merit sainthood.

Marcello Inguscio was born in 1934. Anna Maria Ritter was born in 1938. He was Catholic; she was Waldensian. Both were musicians and interested in helping the sick. They met studying music and were reacquainted in a slum in Catania. They prayed together and dedicated themselves to volunteer work among the sick and elderly.

When they decided to marry, Marcello and Anna made an agreement. Marcello studied Protestant theology and Anna, Catholicism. Anna fell in love with the Eucharist. They married in 1968. Forty of their wedding guests were handicapped. And the newlyweds spent their wedding reception feeding the handicapped.

When they set up their house, it had a chapel, which became the ecclesial community Mission Church-World. The couple had two daughters, Marietta and Lucia. The girls thought it was normal to always have sick people as guests. Volunteership wasn't a hobby; it was a lifestyle.

Anna died of cancer in 1986. Marcello died of a heart attack in 1996. The Missione Chiesa-Mondo continues their work.

h/t Fr. Kevin Kraft, O.P. for his work on The lives of well married saints and holy people

Conscious Immolation

Conscious Immolation is the term Pope Paul VI, used to describe St. Gianna Beretta. Gianna Beretta is the next saint I want to post about in my collection of saints in good married life. Actually, it's Fr. Thomas Keven Kraft, OP, who's complying lives of saints and holy people, who are well married. He means they were happily married; as opposed to their endurance in marriages from hell. That alone would be reason for sainthood. No, our interest is those in average life, not celibates.

Gianna Francesca Beretta was born in Magenta, Italy, in 1922. She was born into a large family; she was the the tenth of thirteen children. Eventually, five siblings died. Her family was very devout--daily communicants. Three of her siblings became religious; Virginia became a Canossian sister, Giuseppe became a diocesan priest, and Enrico became a Capuchin missionary. While Gianna also considered a religious vocation, she discerned that she was called to married life and motherhood.

Always a good girl, she was an excellent student, and went on to become a doctor. She was dedicated to service of the poor and earned a reputation for being a good, kind, person, and also a kind, and good physician. She married Pietro Molla in 1955. He was a good Catholic, also.

Her first child was Pierluigi. Then came Maria Zita. Family was very important to Gianna. Her own immediate family and professional duties, did not isolate Gianna. She kept as close as contact as possible, with her own siblings. As you can imagine, she was extremely busy. Gianna almost lost her third baby in pregnancy, but in 1959, Laura Enrica Maria was born. There was a fourth pregnancy. This one turned out to be problematic. During Gianna's third month of pregnancy, she was diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst. The doctors recommended an abortion, or a hysterectomy, or a risky operation to remove the fibroma (which could kill both mother and child).

Which would you choose? (1) Abortion -- murder the baby (2) Hysterectomy -- murder the baby and negate all possibility of having more children (3) Only remove the fibroma -- however this may endanger the mother's life.

Looking at it this way, I can see where insurance companies would pressure doctors and hospital to take the easy way out. (1) is the Insurance Company's choice -- and unfortunately the choice made most often, in the USA, anyway. We are insurance driven.

But Gianna was not a company. She was a doctor who served people--human beings. Insurance companies be damned.

She chose humanity over business. As a doctor herself, she was very much aware of the risks (3) would entail, yet she prayed and was operated on to extract the fibroma. Some complications continued, yet a fourth child, Gianna Emanuela, was delivered by Caesarian section. It was this choice that Pope Paul VI was referring to, when he used the term "conscious immolation." Gianna consciously chose to risk her life, for the life of another. Jesus taught her that.

Her cause for beatification began in 1970. The miracle that was accepted for her beatification was the cure of a young mother giving birth in 1977. She had a septicemic infection. BTW, this hospital was in Brazil, and the very hospital that Gianna's brother, Fr. Alberto OFM Cap., was promoter of.

The miracle recognized for canonization involved a mother, who when she was only 16 weeks pregnant, sustained a tear in her placenta that drained her womb of amniotic fluid. There is no way a baby in the womb, can survive without amniotic fluid. Through praying for Gianna Molla's intercession, a healthy baby was delivered in normal time.

Gianna was canonized by Pope John Paul II, on May 16, 2004. Her last child, Gianna Emanuela was present, along with her father, Pietro. Gianna Emanuela, herself, is also a physician.

h/t Father Thomas Kevin Kraft, O.P. Research on the Lives of Well married Saints and Holy People and the Vatican News Service http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040516_beretta-molla_en.html

Married Saints

Sometimes I joke with hubby about being married to him is my ticket to sainthood.  Then, sometimes, as an excuse for him not going to church, hubby will say that he doesn’t have to, “You pray enough for both of   us.”

Have you ever noticed, though, that there aren’t as many wives or husbands saints, as there are unmarried?  I don’t mean married saints, like Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux.  I mean one of the married couple is a saint, and the other not.  It seems it would be easier if the couple were on the same wave length, than one be the church goer, and one not. 

For example, let’s look at St. Anna-Maria Tiagi.  She lived with a demanding husband, (he was a church goer and pious in his own way,) and at times with her parents added to their household, and then her own widowed daughter and her six children.  She was that type of person.  Some people bring home lost kittens, Anna-Maria brought home lost people. 

She was of a spiritual bent and prayed often.  She was blessed with visions.  In one revelation, the Virgin Mary told her that it was her special vocation to show that holiness was available in every walk of life.  She became a Lay Trinitarian and followed their rule.

Anna Maria was known to be a pacifier.  She was able to calm her hot tempered husband.  She could defuse her mother.  In his witness statement for his wife’s canonization, Domenico often spoke of the peace she brought to a busy and crowded household.  She managed the family’s budget, but mostly just trusted in God’s Providence.  She taught her children, and everyone, for that matter, religion, and all about the corporal works of mercy.  Anna Maria brought her children with her to visit the sick.

What can I say?  She was a saint.

h/t   Father Thomas Kevin Craft, OP