I have never met one of my favorite people.

But I feel close to her, all the same.

She has shown me, and the world, that holiness is possible — in the 20th century, as a wife and mother and a working woman.

Photos of St. Gianna Molla show her in her vocation amid home life — and her impeccable fashion sense. Her feminine style reflects how women — then and now — can go about “Pursuing God’s Mission With Feminine Style.” I’ve been thinking about her holy witness and how she lived well the feminine genius while “Championing a True Presentation of Womanhood” — and while working as a physician and enjoying hobbies like skiing, among other modern pastimes.

She is one of the saints I would love to chat with over coffee.

I love her encouragement to “live holy the present moment” — because that is what we are made for.

As I seek her intercession, I wonder how she decorated her domestic church. I think she would have been an adherent of liturgical living and all that entails.

Most of all, she was an inspiring witness to the beauty and dignity of life — caring for her family and her patients — and protecting her unborn child at all costs. 

In a culture that often values “choice” at the expense of life and God’s plan for men and women, she is a true model of how living the Christian journey fosters all that is good, for ourselves and others; “that’s the beauty of the witness of St. Gianna, whose feast day is April 28. Because she lived in the world as a wife, mother, and physician, she shows us how we too can achieve holiness in our daily lives,” as I note in my book.

And that goodness has prompted so many to follow in her footsteps, caring for babies and their moms in maternity homes and health facilities and on college campuses — and beyond.

Her last words, on April 28, 1962, were “Jesus, I love you.”

What a beautiful legacy.

And that’s what this world needs more of.