Katharina Luther (1499-1552)

By Rebecca VanDoodewaard [1]

Author of Reformation Women: Sixteenth-Century Figures Who Shaped Christianity’s Rebirth

Introduction

Katharina Luther stands out among women of the Reformation era. Her faithful service and her high-profile, high-maintenance husband earn her a high place. She is known for her work as a wife that enabled her husband to do his seminal work of reforming. In between reviewing Luther’s writing, hosting his students, and raising their children, Katharina brewed beer, butchered pigs, and read her Bible. Without her, Luther would not have been as healthy, productive, or happy. Her work facilitated and furthered the Reformation. When considering the breadth of Katharina’s work after marriage, her background is, in fact, quite surprising.

Preparing For Reform In A Convent

In 1499, Katharina von Bora was born to a noble family in eastern Germany.[2] Before she was six, her mother was dead, and when her father remarried, Katharina was dropped off at a cloister school. Around her ninth birthday, her father sent her to a Cistercian convent for good.[3]While not all of her father’s reasons are known, one of them was that he was financially tight, so giving away a child would save money.

How she coped with abandonment growing up is unknown. What is known is that as an adult she displayed a deep love for children, and especially for orphans. Together, Katharina and Martin had six children: Johannes, Elizabeth, Magdalena, Martin, Paul, and Margarete.[4] And they adopted orphaned or poor relatives: George, Andreas, Cyriacus, Fabian, Elsa and Lena Kaufmann; Hans Polner; Martin Luther Jr.; Anna Strauss; Hanna von der Saale; Florian von Bora, and possibly two others.[5] That makes a total of at least seventeen children that Katie cared for.[6]

Katharina’s care for children did not happen in an emotional void; it took deep inner motivation. Part of it would have stemmed from understanding her own adoption into God’s family; part of it had to come from her own suffering and a desire to keep other children from the same grief. Katharina knew what it was like to be bereaved and abandoned at a vulnerable age. Her willingness to welcome and love children who were threatened with the same trials showed that she wanted to protect others from what she suffered. The hardship of her childhood prepared her to show compassion for hurting children as an adult.

In the convent as a child, young Katharina was inserted into the strict order of monastic life. The hardship there was not the order or the quiet; it was the falsehood in which Katharina was immersed. Convents were pseudo families with pseudo “mothers” and “sisters” offering a pseudo gospel. For many years, Katharina did not realize that she was experiencing the hardship of spiritual abuse. She was simply part of the religious community there. The convent had a considerable collection of relics, which the nuns venerated. There were regular prayers, worship of Mary, and the isolation, silence, personal poverty, and strict hierarchy that seemed normal to any late medieval European because of the Church’s control over the population.[7]

But again, the Lord designed the convent experience for Katharina’s good. What Katharina could see is that the convent was actually giving her a huge skill set that she would later use to help the man who started the Reformation. The convent was in a lovely setting, with forest and gardens; there were lots of animals, too. Though Katharina did not do a lot of physical work herself, she saw gardening and food production happening around her.[8] She saw animal husbandry.[9] She saw that a small community could be quite self-sustaining because of a few hard-working women.

The convent served as a pilgrimage destination; the nuns often housed these guests and, thus, Katharina saw the importance of hospitality and community. Care for the sick was also part of monastic life; Katharina showed herself to be an excellent nurse later in life.[10]

One huge advantage that nuns had over other women in this period is education – nuns were taught how to read. Katharina read German as well as Latin, which she also spoke to some extent.[11] She was exposed to theological works, too. This prepared her very specifically for living as the wife of an author and intellectual.

The convent not only gave her practical skills, it also pressed into her a routine of personal devotion. Later in life, she expressed appreciation for the habit of frequent, fervent prayer that the convent taught her. So, God prepared Katharina to be involved in reform before she realized that it was a possibility.

Converting, Serving, And Marrying

In 1523, Katharina realized that reform was not only a possibility but also a necessity. The printing press allowed the production of Protestant literature, particularly pamphlets, and these writings were smuggled into convents across Germany. Katharina’s convent was no exception; Luther’s writings reached it likely in 1519.[12] She and a few other nuns were converted and eventually decided that they must escape. They fled to Wittenberg on Luther’s advice.[13]

Escaped nuns were a huge problem for the Catholic church in 1523. These nuns who had broken serious vows made Rome angry. Even people helping them were subject to execution if caught. The nuns also made enemies of their families who were embarrassed by their conversion. The nuns were awkward in society, too; these single women needed to integrate into a quickly changing city. They had not interacted with men or children for most of their lives and had few opportunities for employment. They were leaving a very secure, stable environment and future for totally unpredictable ones.

Luther understood this challenging environment, and he helped the nuns find places to live and work. Katharina became a domestic servant for two Wittenberg families. Thus, the next trial Katharina faced was servanthood.

Although Katharina did bring some skills from the convent, she had never seen how a family, let alone a Christian one, functions. And this is what she learned in these homes. Her two mistresses seem to have been excellent homemakers, so Katharina saw how to manage money and servants, children and visitors. She saw that families are not as predictable as convents, and she learned how a wife and mother deals with changing situations. She saw Christian marriages functioning. God gave Katharina good examples that would serve her well.

Despite the good environments in these homes, or perhaps because of them, it appears Katharina wanted her own home. In her first year as a servant, just months after leaving the convent, Katharina met a university student, Jerome Baumgartner. The two fell in love—it was known in the town that they were a couple—though there was no formal engagement. Jerome had to leave town later that year, and he did not come back. Katharina heard nothing from him. In 1524, Luther wrote to Jerome, “… if you intend marrying Katharine von Bora, make haste before she is given to someone else… she has not yet gotten over her love for you.”[14] You can imagine what Katharina went through here: living as a servant in someone else’s home with a broken heart while the Protestant leadership tried to figure out what was happening to the relationship. And what happened was Jerome’s family. They were wealthy, politically involved, and very aware of the social-legal consequences of having an ex-nun for a daughter-in-law. Jerome was forced to choose between his family and Katharina, and he chose his family. He was not the only suitor Katharina had in these years, but he was the only one whom Katharina loved. This additional abandonment must have sunk deep into her, since it affected her physically at the time.[15]

At this point, the story took a now well-known turn: she married Dr. Luther himself in 1525. And he did not marry her because he loved her; he married her to please his father, and to “spite the Pope and the Devil.”[16] Luther was a great man, but he was not an easy man: moody, sometimes depressed, intense, sometimes crass, walking around under a death sentence, complaining about his bowels. She cared for him, often brought him to his senses, and made him eat regular, healthy meals.

Part of Katharina’s love for him must have come from his faithfulness to her. Abandonment from both a father and a suitor would certainly produce thankfulness for a faithful man. Thus, it appears that Katharina’s devotion to and patience with her husband is in part a deep appreciation for his steadfastness and care for her.

Because, of course, he did fall in love with her. Luther’s letters show how quickly and completely Katharina swept him off his feet.[17] Nevertheless, the first year of marriage, Luther said, has a lot to get used to. He wrote, “You wake up in the morning and there on the pillow are a pair of pigtails that were not there before.”[18] The surprises, though, did not weigh down his affection. “Katie,” he told her, “you have a husband who loves you. Let someone else be empress.”[19] She did, for the rest of her marriage. Katharina’s past experiences informed and powered her service as a wife and mother.

Luther had a range of titles and nicknames for Katharina that reflected not only his love for her but also her multi-faceted work: kind wife, dear rib, most-loved, my heart-love, the Virgin, brewer, deeply learned lady, morning star of Wittenberg, rich lady at Zulsdorf, friendly beloved lord, self-tormentor, gracious lady, Lady of the house, Sir Katharina, beloved housewife, theologian, most holy Mrs. Doctoress, beautiful lady, resident of the sow-market, gardener, your Holiness, preacher—and most often, dear Katie.[20]

Sticking To Christ As A Faithful Wife

In observing God’s providence in this situation, looking back from Katharina’s fruitfulness in marriage, providence is so clear. The Lord knew exactly what she would have to do as Luther’s wife, and He gave her an education that prepared her for it. Katharina’s training was so specific to the calling here, moving from abandoned child to nun to servant to Reformer’s wife, unknowingly gathering tools for ministry along the way. God knew just what Katharina would need to do to contribute to reform, and He provided before she realized what her role in that would be.

After marriage, her role was very clear, and so was her zeal. Katharina made comfortable the Black Cloister, the Luther family home. Her first year of marriage involved much cleaning, since the building was filthy, right down to moldy bedsheets.[21] Her convent upbringing ushered cleanliness and order into the home, which she had renovated to better serve the family. She produced food and bought land. She frequently welcomed guests in addition to lodgers—up to 120 at a single meal, but 30 to 40 was normal.[22] She bore children and adopted others.

Katharina had a significant impact on Luther’s pastoral and academic work, too. Her husband became known for evening dinner discussions, known as Table Talk. If it were not for Katharina, these discussions would not have happened. She not only grew, prepared, and served the food but also sat down with Luther and the students to join the discussion. That was highly unusual at the time for a woman to join a “man’s” conversation. Even more unusual were the occasions when she disagreed with Luther in front of guests. Some students were shocked, but Luther knew his wife too well to be surprised or silenced or offended.[23] In the evenings, she often read Luther’s writing projects and gave him feedback. Someone called the Luthers’ house a “domus academus.”[24] This example of openness and recognition of Katharina’s gifts helped raise the status of women to Biblical levels.

Her influence on Luther was strong. Everyone knew it. Some did not like it. They “feared that she ‘ruled’ the reformer to the same degree that she ruled their house.”[25] Katharina’s strong opinions, voice, and drive made her formidable. But her husband was more than a match for her. Instead of being ruled by Katharina, he delegated huge responsibility to her, respecting her not only as a wife but also as a fellow Christian with significant skills. This is reflected in his letters to her, which talk about children, money, and weather, but also theology, publishing, and international politics.[26]

It is clear that Katharina’s work directly impacted those whom she served. But this biblical lifestyle also challenged the Roman Catholic church’s teaching on clergy, marriage, and more. Not only was Katharina living a quiet, fruitful life, working with her hands, but God also used her obedience, along with other Protestant housewives, to complete a shift in European culture.

Think about how convents and monasteries functioned before the Reformation: they served as hospitals, basic education facilities, hostels, and places of personal devotion. Believing housewives proved that they could care for the sick, read, foster an intellectual climate, host travelers, garden, and pray just as well as monks and nuns had for centuries. Protestant housewives did much to make monasticism socially obsolete. As their lives conformed to a biblical pattern, they showed that society could function without the Roman Catholic institutions that had been propping it up. Though their work was not always visible, Protestant wives—Katie at the head—attacked Catholic presuppositions by their domestic work, putting Rome on the defense.

One biographer writes of Katharina:

She apparently loved life, she was spirited and filled with energy from her commitment to support her spouse, the church, and the Reformation with which she was very much involved both as Luther’s spouse and as a believer herself. On her deathbed, she proclaimed her Lutheran Christian faith with confidence: ‘I will stick to Christ as a burr to a top coat.’[27]

A former monk and a former nun in a former monastery gives us a picture of Protestant home life in the Reformation. But it gives us more than that; it gives us a picture of what biblical marriage and womanhood can be and how this blesses the Church and honors the Lord.

Notes

1. This article is based on a talk given at the Puritan Reformed Seminary Conference, August 25, 2017, Grand Rapids, Michigan. That talk is a forthcoming chapter in The Beauty and Glory of the Reformation (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018) and is published here with permission.
2. Kirsi Stjerna, Women and the Reformation (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009), 53.
3. Ernst Kroker, The Mother of the Reformation, trans. Mark E. DeGarmeaux (St. Louis: Concordia, 2013), 11.
4. Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York: Abingdon Press, 2013), 293.
5. “We hear Luther talk about these eleven foster children only occasionally. And there may have been more.” Kroker, Mother of the Reformation, 122-152.
6. Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 58.
7. Kroker, Mother of the Reformation, 14.
8. Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 53.
9. Kroker, Mother of the Reformation, 15-17.
10. Ibid., 181.
11. This is known from Luther’s letters to her, which include Latin parts. See, for example, Martin Luther to Katharina Luther, October 4, 1529, in The Letters of Martin Luther ed. and trans. Margaret A. Currie (London: MacMillan and Co., 1908), 197. There are also records of her speaking Latin occasionally. Bainton, Luther, 295.
12. Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 54.
13. Kroker, Mother of the Reformation, 32.
14. He added, “I wish that you two were married.” Martin Luther to Jerome Baumgärtner, October 12, 1524 in Letters, 129.
15. Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 5.
16. Bainton, Luther, 288.
17. Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 56
18. Bainton, Luther, 290.
19. Ibid., 302.
20. These terms of endearment are scattered throughout Luther’s letters to his wife from early in their marriage to his last letter to her, February 14, 1546. See for example, Letters, 197, 240-241, 246, 299, 390, 471, 473-474.
21. Ibid., 290.
22. Besides Luther, the children, Auntie Lena, lodgers, and student “regulars,” there were often out-of-town guests, visiting family, local friends, and the occasional dignitary.
23. Kroker, Mother of the Reformation, 160; Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 63.
24. Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 59.
25. Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 67.
26. See, for example, Martin Luther to Katharina Luther, September 15, 1530 in The Letters of Martin Luther ed. and trans. Margaret A. Currie (London: MacMillan and Co., 1908), https://archive.org/stream/lettersofmartinl00luth/lettersofmartinl00luth_djvu.txt, accessed October 24, 2017.
27. Stjerna, Women of the Reformation, 67.