The presentation and veneration of the relics of St. Gianna Beretta Molla will take place the weekend of Sept. 11 and 12. St. Gianna is the patron of pro-life activities. This special event is sponsored by the diocesan Office of Pro-Life Activities and the St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center, Buffalo.

A Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, Sept. 11, at 9 a.m. at St. Louis Church, Edward and Main streets, Buffalo. Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, bishop of Buffalo, will be the celebrant. Later that day, there also will be a Mass at 4:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Pompeii Church, 158 Laverack Ave., Lancaster, as well as Masses on Sunday, Sept. 12, at 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon.

“St. Gianna Molla is not simply an historical figure within in our Church’s distant history,” said Denis Coakley, director of Pro-Life Activities for the Diocese of Buffalo, “she is a contemporary woman of faith, woman of science, woman of family, and woman of compassion.

“Through bringing her relics to the Buffalo diocese, we learn from her in a very real and tangible way the beauty of compassion, love and faith. She is with us, not just at St. Louis Church or Our Lady of Pompeii, but rather in everything we do, everything we say and everyone we serve in protecting and celebrating human life. In life, she was a loving mother and brilliant physician; in eternal life, she is our patroness and inspiration,” Coakley said. 

In 1962, Gianna Molla, a physician who treated the young as well as the very old, was told she had cancer while she was pregnant with her fourth child. She asked the surgeon to save the life of her unborn child above all else; he did and so her daughter Gianna Emanuela was born on Apr. 21, 1962. St. Gianna, only 39 years old, died a week later after extensive efforts to save her life. Canonized on May 16, 2004, she is known as the first canonized woman physician and professional.

For more information, please contact the Office of Pro-Life Activities at 847-2205.