Chasuble Made from the Wedding Dress of Saint Gianna.

Pieces of her dress are sown around the cuffs of the hands of Our Lady of Lourdes

and around the neck of Mariolina,

her daughter that died two years after Gianna.

Gianna 1922-1962

When Gianna was searching for her wedding dress,

she confided in her sister, Virginia,

that she wished to choose the finest material,

so that, should she have a son

that would be called to the priesthood,

she could use her wedding dress

to make a chasuble for him.

Her son did not become a priest,

but many priests, bishops, and cardinals have worn

the chasuble of Saint Gianna, made with her wedding dress.

Gianna grew in the life of a family

who lived a Sacramental life in the Church.

Reading about her upbringing and young adulthood,

one is treated to a litany of priests

who were there to assist her in her discernment

toward her vocation and service to the Church.

If it is true that motherhood brings to the Church, Her priests,

than it is also true that

the priesthood brings to the Church, Her Saints, I ask?

Sanctity happened to Gianna when no one was looking,

because at the heart of her life,

was a life of spiritual deepening through prayer and the Sacraments.

She lived an ordinary life, passionate to serve others.

Her husband, Pietro, was shocked to learn of the Church's intentions

to open her cause for beatification, eight years after her death,

because he said that

he did not know that a mother could be a Saint,

or that he was even living with a Saint!

Pietro attended her canonization on May 16, 2004

and just turned 98 this year, 2009.

Sharon