Katharina von Bora

Good morning.

This is Rebecca Lutzer from Wittenberg, Germany. A beautiful day here in this quaint, medieval-looking town that has so much history and has brought us here today to learn more about Martin and Katie Luther. So this morning, I’m going to share with you a little bit about their lives – how they met and how God used both of them together during the years of the Reformation.

When Martin Luther took his vows of celibacy at the monastery in Erfurt, he was certain that he would never marry, but when he was excommunicated by the church, his mentor and confessor, Staupitz, released him from his vows. Events took an interesting turn when Luther was staying in the Wartburg Castle. Monks in Wittenberg, having renounced their own vows of celibacy, were marrying nuns who were leaving their cloisters. Luther had written some tracts about the Gospel, which eventually made their way to the nunnery near Torgau. In them, Luther was giving them advice on how to escape. Now, this was a violation of the law. It was illegal, but Luther believed that his prince, the Elector Frederick the Wise, would probably look the other way. He did, so Luther made an arrangement with a Leonard Kopp, who, from time to time, would deliver barrels of herring to the nunnery and Torgau.

In 1523, Kopp bundled 12 nuns hidden behind barrels in the wagon (some say they were in the barrels), and he brought them to Wittenberg in his covered wagon. Three of the nuns returned to their homes, but nine stayed in Wittenberg. Luther felt responsible to find husbands for these nuns or homes for them. Someone suggested that he marry one himself, but he commented that he had no such intention, because he expected to die the death of a heretic.

In the end, all were provided for, except for Katherine von Bora. Luther had made some suggestions for men for her to marry, one of them being Dr. Nicholas Almsdorf, who was also a lecturer at the Wittenberg University seminary. Katherine told Almsdorf that she had no intention of marrying him or Luther. These were older men in their 40s, and she did not think they were eligible for her. But Luther began to consider this seriously, and he went to visit his parents, and they encouraged him to marry Katie.

Well, Luther had been teaching about the institution of marriage, that it was divinely established and should be elevated above the celibacy. And so as this idea grew on, Luther, even if he were to die at the stake, it would give status to Katie and he would affirm his faith. Finally, Luther gave three reasons for his choice to marry Katie: to please his father, to spite the Pope and the devil, and to seal his witness before martyrdom. He was betrothed to Katie on June 13, 1525.

In those days, a betrothal was the equivalent of marriage. And on the 27th of June, a public ceremony took place. Back in 1998, my husband, Erwin, and I were over here, and we arrived in Wittenberg on the very day they were celebrating the wedding. And it was so festive and the whole town was decorated. It was really an incredible experience to see.

So, Luther sent out invitations to Spalatin, his Confessor. He said, “Please come to my wedding. I have made angels laugh and devils weep.” And then he said to Kopp who had arranged for the nuns to escape, “My lord, Katie and I invite you to send a barrel of the best Torgau beer, and if it’s not good, you will have to drink it all by yourself.”

At 10 o’clock in the morning, Luther led Katie to the sound of bells through Wittenberg to the parish town church. Luther’s marriage and family provided a model of how couples in ministry can serve in partnership with mutual respect and blessing. Luther did not die the death of a martyr. Thus he and Katie lived together 21 years.

Luther and Katie were well suited for each other. In their home, there was humor and respect. And Luther said, next to God’s Word, there is no more precious treasure than holy matrimony. God’s highest gift on earth is a pious, cheerful God-fearing, home-keeping wife with whom you can live peacefully, to whom you can trust your goods, your body, and your life.

Marriage brought many changes to Luther’s life. He said, “Before I married, the bed was not made for a whole year and became foul with sweat. But I worked so hard and was so weary, I tumbled in and did not notice it.” Luther was not infatuated with Katie, he said, when they married, but throughout the years, their love for each other grew. He said, “I would not exchange Katie for France or Venice because God has given her to me and other women have worse faults.” Katie was strong-willed, capable, and able to spar with her famous husband. One day when he was depressed, she dressed in dark clothing as if going to a funeral. When Luther asked her who had died, she said, “Why, God has died. Have you not heard this news?” Luther began to laugh and realize how foolish he was to be discouraged and acting as if God were dead.

He often referred to Katie as “My Rib,” also as “My Lord.” She really was of noble birth, and sometimes he would make a pun of her name and say, “Katie is my kette,” which in German means “chain.” He called himself her willing servant.

Katie ran the household and took care of the money. Her husband never learned how to handle money, and he gladly turned this over to her, for he said, “God divided the hand into fingers so that money would slip through.” He would give everything away that was not absolutely necessary for them to keep at times, Katie had to hide money to keep Luther away from it. Initially, they lacked money to pay their servants to heat the rooms, and when the Archbishop of Mainz gave them a gift of money, Luther would not accept it, insisting that it was money earned by indulgences. But Katie had no such qualms, so she took the money, paid their debts, and bought a cow and chickens and a coat for her husband. At first, Luther was angry, but she won the argument and took over the finances of the family.

Katie was very enterprising. She looked after pigs and chickens. She planted a garden, managed an orchard, and several other things. She also looked after Luther, who suffered from a variety of illnesses, such as gout, insomnia, hemorrhoids, stones, dizziness, and ringing in the ears like the bells of Halle, Leipzig, Erfurt, and Wittenberg altogether,

Katie served Luther beer, which she brewed herself as a sedative for his insomnia. Luther paid her the highest tribute when he called St Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians “My Catherine von Bora.” Luther said, “In domestic affairs, I defer to Katie. Otherwise, I’m led by the Holy Ghost.” So, he was very in favor of marriage and said that it taught much more character than celibacy.

Luther sometimes chided Katie for her worry about his health and his safety. He said, “You worry yourself just as if God were not almighty and not able to create ten Dr Martin Luthers I have a better protector than you and all the angels. He is my protector, lies in a manger, and He sits at the hand of God now, the Father Almighty. Therefore, my Katie, rest in peace. Amen.”

Luther often repeated this advice for married couples, “Let the wife make her husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.”

Martin and Katie had six children. Their first son was named Hans, and when he was cutting teeth, Luther said that he was making a joyous nuisance of himself. “These are the joys of marriage, of which the Pope is not worthy.” Hans the firstborn gave them trouble, though, and struggled with obedience. It was a challenge for Martin and Katie in raising him, but they prayed for him and taught him and led him. Luther said that children taught him about God. It helped him understand the words, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Besides their own children, Martin and Katie reared four orphan children whose parents had died in the plague. Along with them, other children also came to live with them in the cloister. Their fourth son, Paul, became a doctor to the Elector Jonas, who succeeded the Elector Frederick.

Now, life was not always happy and peaceful and joyful, because Katie and Luther suffered a great personal loss when Magdalena, his affectionate and favorite daughter, was 14 years old. She lay upon her death bed, and Luther prayed, “O God, I love her so much, but Thy will be done.” Then turning to her, he said, “Magdalena Lenchen, my little girl, you would like to stay with your father here, and you would like to go to your Father in heaven.” And she said, “Yes, dear father, as God wills.” He held her in his arms until she died, and then he said, “Do leave us, Lenchen (an endearing nickname), you will rise and shine like the stars and the sun! How strange it is to know that she is at peace and all is well, and yet be so sorrowful.” To his friend, Jonas, he wrote, “You will have heard that my dearest child is born again into the eternal kingdom of God. We ought to be glad at her departure, for she is taken away from this world, from the flesh, and from the devil. But so strange is natural love that we cannot bear it without anguish of heart, without some sense of death in ourselves.”

On her tombstone, Luther inscribed these words,

I, Luther’s daughter Madeleine, with the saints here sleep,
And, covered, calmly rest on this my couch of earth;
Daughter of death I was, born of the seed of sin,
But by Thy precious blood redeemed, O Christ, I live!

Later, we will see the gravestone of Martin Luther and his daughter, Magdalena.

When Luther was ill and thought he would die, he admonished Katie, “If it be God’s will, accept it.” To which she replied, “My dear doctor, if it is God’s will, I would rather have you with our Lord than here with me. Don’t worry about us. God will take care of us.”

And finally, on a trip to settle a dispute, Luther, in returning home with his three sons with him, died in the town of Eisleben, the town where he was born and not far from where he was baptized. This was in Eisleben on February 18, 1546, the same town where we have been before, and Luther had preached sermon zero, and spent much of his time in Eisleben.

Now, Katie was a widow, but she had no rights. The will said that all of their properties should go to their children, but the will was never notarized because Martin Luther hated lawyers. She could not even be considered the guardian for her children. Charles V, hoping to return the Lutherans back to Catholicism, was on his way to Wittenberg with his armies. Katie feared for herself and her children and left the town. Later, she was able to return, but was now destitute. She begged friends for money, and when the plague came to Wittenberg, she had to flee the town again. She didn’t make it very far. She left with two of her children, but just outside of Wittenberg, the horses pulling the wagon were startled and stumbled. When the wagon began to tip, Katie jumped out to steady it, but tumbled into a ditch of dirty, cold water, where she lay injured and barely conscious until her children were able to get her out and into the wagon again.

Katie lived just three more months, often unconscious, finally dying on December 20, 1552, at the age of 53. Her four years as a widow were very difficult, but one of her last statements was, “I will cling to Christ like a burr to a fur coat.” Martin and Katie not only taught us how to live and love, but also how to die. In the end, both bowed humbly to accept God’s will in all things, including the inevitability of their death,

Even today, their example of love and hard-won partnership is an inspiration to us all. Years earlier, when Luther was reflecting on his own unexpected and remarkable life, he asked this pondering question, “Who could have seen all that in the stars?”