Bismarck, N.D., Nov 4, 2019 / 13:40 pm
The University of Mary's School of Health Sciences will be named for St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a pediatrician and a mother who died after declining cancer treatment that could have harmed her unborn daughter.
"How fitting it will be to have St. Gianna the namesake of our School of Health Sciences, a saint who lived out this value in her medical practice and personal life," Jodi Roller, dean of the North Dakota-based university's School of Health Sciences, said Nov. 1.
The announcement came at the University of Mary's main campus near Bismarck during the 2019 Candlelight Gala on Nov. 1, All Saints' Day. The gala launched a fundraising effort for the health sciences school.
"Calling upon what her Catholic faith taught her, Molla believed every human life was a gift from God, something sacred to be respected and protected from conception to natural death," the University of Mary said in a statement.