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Following her death, Gianna was placed in a room full of burning candles. Her face was serene, every sign of pain was completely gone and she seemed full of joy. A interminable line of people, in tears and praying processed at that Molla home, a procession of piety and prayer. The procession participants became more numerous the following day and continued unbroken until Monday April 30, the funeral day.

On Sunday, Pietro, the children and all of the Molla and Beretta relatives went to the small church of the Virgin Mary of Good Counsel to have the new baby baptized. This was the same baptismal font where the other 3 children were baptized. Aunt Zita held the baby and Pierluigi held the basin on his small knees. Fr Guiseppe administered the Sacrament of Baptism, which makes us children of God. The child was given the name Gianna Emanuela: the first name in remembrance of her mother and the second to reaffirm their faith in the presence of God in the family and in the hearts of the members of the family. Immediately afterwards, as was done with the other children Pietro, head of the family, pronounced before the image of the Virgin Mary of Good Counsel the Act of Consecration. Thus the child had two mothers in Heaven watching over her.

After the baptism, all of the family members returned to the house. There was no great celebration but the spirit of Gianna was felt, motherly hovering over the entire family.Pierluigi looking at her mother in the coffin turned to his father:

“Why is Mother there?
Is she mother?
Does mother see me, touch me, and think of me?”

Caught up in emotion, Pietro was not able to answer. Pierluigi followed with”
“For mother there should be a golden little house.”

The funeral ceremony was attended by all of those who admired and loved her. The small church was incapable of holding the crowds of people who wanted to greet the martyr mother. Everyone was convinced that Heaven was enriched with a new saint.

Sister Virginia wrote to Fr Albert:

“The funeral has been more beautiful than one for a princess and an incentive to a strong return to God, to sacramental life. There was never so many Easter confessions as in these days. These men confided to the priest that they felt the need to go to Confession before they dared look at the corpse of Gianna”.

The coffin, covered with roses, symbol of her husbands love was placed over the tomb of the priests, under the altar. This was an unusual decision, not only because the Molla family did not have a chapel, but also especially for the esteem and veneration of everybody, including the clergy, convinced that those mortal remains were relics of a holy martyr.

Zita, the sister to whom Gianna had entrusted the care and education of her children, was certain that the Lord wanted to make of her an example of mother to imitate.

“If the Lord called her with Him, it is because He wants to make her an example to many mothers who find themselves in such predicaments.”

At the funeral held at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Dr. Jolanda Botti, a pediatrician, stated: "I believe that the memory of Gianna will be a seed that will bear fruit. We cannot think that God has taken away from this world such a noble and dear lady without a very great motive that we cannot understand now."

     
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