Commemoration of Katharina von Bora Luther
December 20
Today, we remember and give thanks to God for the beloved wife of Martin Luther, Katharina von Bora Luther.
Katharina von Bora (born in 1499) was placed as a five-year-old child into the keeping of the Benedictines for education. When she was nine, she moved to a Cistercian foundation where her mother’s sister also was cloistered. Like many other nuns at the time, Katharina heard of and grew quite interested in the spreading reform movement in Germany. In 1523, she conspired with several of her sister nuns, wrote to Luther, and begged his assistance in obtaining their release.
Easter of that year, Luther arranged with a fish merchant (who made deliveries at the monastery) to hide the sisters among his empty barrels. Thus the nuns made their escape and arrived in Wittenberg. Luther tried to restore them to their families, but most declined to take them back. Over the next two years, Luther arranged marriages for all of them, except for Katharina. A number of men were interested in her, but she had declined them all. She finally disclosed to Nicholas von Amsdorf that she’d only marry him or Luther.
Luther, still believing that he would likely be martyred, had never seriously contemplated marriage. Yet, Katharina’s persistence finally paid off; in June of 1525, they were married. He was forty-one and she was twenty-six. Since married clergy had not existed in the West for centuries, Luther and his wife set the pattern for what would become the Protestant parsonage.
Together they lived in what was the former monastery of the Augustinians in Wittenberg, a gift to the Luthers from Elector John. Katharina proved to be a wise household manager and quite industrious in her own right.
The Lord blessed them with six live births. They sadly lost two children, one at but eight months and another at age thirteen. Their family circle, however, also included four orphans who they adopted. Throughout their marriage, they demonstrated a respectful and playful relationship with each other. Katharina always called Martin “Herr Doktor.” She worried about her husband’s poor health, and he teased her on that account, inviting her to trust instead in the Lord. When Luther died, she experienced a great deal of financial hardship. During the Smalcaldic War, her property was laid waste. She did receive some support from those who gratefully remembered her husband’s service to the Church. Katharina died [in] 1552, having fled to Torgau due to plague in Wittenberg. Her final words were reportedly, “I’ll stick to Christ like a burr to a cloth.”
[Collect for the Commemoration of Katharina von Bora Luther:] O God, our refuge and our strength, You raised up Your servant Katharina to support her husband in the task to reform and renew Your Church in the light of Your Word. Defend and purify the Church today and grant that, through faith, we may boldly support and encourage our pastors and teachers of the faith as they proclaim and administer the riches of Your grace made known in Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
William Weedon Celebrating the Saints 230-231