Katharina Von Bora, Part two

 Sooner than expected...

 

Katharina Von Bora

Her Marriage

In April 1523, Luther sent Leonhard Köppe, a city councilman that would also deliver herring to the monastery, and with him Katharina and the other eight nuns hid in his wagon among the barrels of smoked fish and escaped from their Cistercian convent. A local student of the University of Wittenberg where Martin Luther taught, wrote to a friend: 'A wagon load of vestal virgins has just come to town, all more eager for marriage than for life. God grant them husbands lest worse befall." Within two years, Luther was able to arrange homes, marriages, or employment for all of the escaped nuns—except for Katharina. She first was housed with the family of Philipp Reichenbach, the city clerk of Wittenberg, and later went to the home of Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife, Barbara.

Then in his mission to find a husband for Katharina, he offered her to Wittenberg University alumnus Jerome Baumgärtner, and a pastor, Kaspar Glatz of Orlamunde, but nothing came of it, the first one due to the man’s fear of being associated with an ex-nun and the second one due to Katie’s disinterest. She finally told Luther’s friend and fellow reformer, Nikolaus von Amsdorf, in a conversation that she would be willing to marry only Luther or him.

When he informed Luther, he thought long and hard, and this was his response :

" My marriage would please my father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh and the devils to weep. "

So his mind was made up. Marriage it would be. Luther made it abundantly clear that he was marrying Katharina to try to set an example since he and other Reformers had spoken out harshly against the celibacy of the priesthood and the low view of marriage in the Roman Catholic Church. Once Katie found out that they were indeed to be wed she reflected and then prayed:

  " Now I shall no longer be Katharina, runaway nun; I shall be the wife of the great Doctor Luther, and everything I do or say will reflect upon him. But this must be what God intended for me or He would never have moved the doctor to ask me to marry him. It’s like an assignment from God. God, keep me humble. Help me to be a good wife to your servant Doctor Luther. And perhaps, dear Father You can also manage to give me a little love and happiness. "

They were married on June 13, 1525, before witnesses. There was a wedding breakfast the next morning, and then two weeks later they had a more formal public ceremony. Katharina was 26, and Martin was 41.

They had six children, Johannes, or Hans, Elizabeth who died at eight months, Magdalena, who died at thirteen, Martin Jr., Paul, and Margarete. ; in addition she suffered a miscarriage in 1539. The Luther's also adopted eleven more, including Katharina's nephew, Fabian. When the first born, Hans, had his first tooth, it was a national event.

Katie was a whirl-wind of activity. While Luther kept giving lectures, She ran a farm, a brewery, bred and raised cattle, butchered the animals, ran a guest house for the students in the University and fed them, and kept the house in order, and with five to ten children in the house, that might be a little difficult. Luther had several nick-names for her. like " My Lord Katie " ( being a generous man, whenever he would meet a beggar, without thinking he would reach into his pocket to give the beggar a good amount of money, she would stop him, and ask him " Do our Children need to eat? ) , “Doctora Lutherin”, "boss of Zulsdorf," after the name of the farm they owned, and the "morning star of Wittenberg" for her habit of rising at 4 a.m. to take care of her various responsibilities.

Katie also encouraged Luther when he was discouraged. It’s no secret Luther was a marked-man facing much opposition, as such discouragement is normal. Katie wasn’t always traditional in her ways of encouragement, though. One story tells of how she dressed in her mourning clothes one day while Luther was depressed. When he questioned her about who had passed away, she replied, “Don’t you know, God is dead?” Of course, this was an avenue that worked with Luther as he soon saw the ridiculousness of his own state. It was Katie that kept on her husband to respond to Erasmus and so we today have The Bondage of the Will thanks to her!