April 28: Feast of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

April 28 is the feast of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla.

(October 4, 1922 – April 28, 1962)

She was an Italian physician specializing in paediatrics. When she was pregnant with her fourth child, she refused both an abortion and a hysterectomy,

knowing that continuing the pregnancy could lead to her death, as in fact it did.

She was canonized on May 16, 2004, in Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II.