Valentina Di Marco

An Exemplary Couple tells the inspiring story of St. Gianna Molla’s marriage to Pietro, and her heroic act of love for her baby, Gianna Emmanuela Molla. Valentina Di Marco’s extensive study of their lives draws heavily from the many letters Gianna and Pietro wrote to each other. This book was first published in Italian and is now published in English with the help of St. Gianna and Pietro’s youngest child. Within these pages, their lives are chronicled from their courtship, engagement, and marriage to their parenting years. You will get a glimpse of how their love for each other grew as they encouraged each other in striving for holiness and a greater love of God. Valentina also shares new details of Pietro’s life as he endeavored to provide for his family during a difficult time in Italy’s history and to faithfully support Gianna through her illness and the decision to save their baby. 

When reading the lives of the saints, it is often easy to feel that the virtue and sanctity of these holy men and women are somehow out of reach for someone in our present times. However, St. Gianna and Pietro Molla’s story has the opposite effect. Through this book, you will find the simple, yet holy life of a couple devoted to the true call of the marriage vocation: to help each other get to Heaven. 

As the Church Militant, we have a duty to fight for a culture of life in a society that has widely accepted a culture of death through the rejection of the sanctity of marriage, the family, and the sanctity of life itself. To effectively rally against this rejection of Truth, we must arm ourselves with the virtues exemplified by the saints; learning from St. Gianna Molla and her husband Pietro is a sure way to promote a culture of life.

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