Katherine Von Bora: The Woman Behind the Man Part 1

I wrote this paper last year and thought it would be fun to post it on my blog as a 2 part story.  The story of Katherine Von Bora (Luther)'s life has long been a source of challenge and encouragement to me.  I hope it will for you too!

Our knowledge of Katherine Von Bora is primarily drawn from the letters of her husband, and a few from friends and from her own hand. The picture that is painted in this correspondence is of a woman with a heart and determination to match her husband. The hand of God is evident throughout Katherine’s life shaping her and equipping her for the very particular life and ministry He called her to.

Katherine Von Bora was born near Leipzig on January 29, 1499 to noble parents Hans von Bora and Anna von Haugwitz. She had three brothers and a sister. When her mother died, Katherine was only 6. Her father had fallen on difficult financial times, and when he remarried to a woman who had several of her own children, he decided to put Katherine into a convent. So Katherine grew up in the life of the nunnery though she had no choice in the matter. Interestingly, the year of her entrance into the cloister was the same year that Martin Luther entered the monastery in Erfurt.[1]

When Katherine was 16 years old, she received her vows and prepared to live life as a devoted sister of the convent. However, winds of change were blowing across Germany, and even within the shelter of the cloister, Katherine was not unaffected by the shifting world around her. The young nuns of the convent heard of Martin Luther and his teachings on the doctrine of justification by faith. Along with these teachings, Katherine and her friends secretly read his teachings on the dangers of monastic vows which denied what Luther called “natural companionships”. The girls considered Luther’s encouragement regarding the goodness of living within marriage and family, and some of the nuns desired to leave behind their vows in favor of marriage. However, it was no small thing to give up monastic vows, and could even be punished by death. The very idea of leaving the convent was a very dangerous notion for Katherine and her friends.[2]

Bold Katherine and several other nuns who could not gain the aid of their families in leaving the nunnery, decided to secretly write to Doctor Luther to ask for help in fleeing the convent. Luther was determined to help the girls, but knew the risks involved both for the nuns and for anyone caught aiding in their escape. He finally settled on a plan, wherein he conscripted the assistance of a friend who would go to the nunnery disguised as a fishmonger, and then left for Wittenberg with his barrels filled not with fish- but with 12 escaped nuns!

Katherine was among the nuns who made this daring escape, and while some of the girls were able to return to their own welcoming families, Katherine and some others had no place to go. Martin Luther organized housing for the ladies among the people of his congregation, where they were to remain as part of these families until they chose to marry. The family of Philipp Reichenbach opened their home to Katherine, and she was quite happy living there with them. During her stay, she made the acquaintance of a family friend, the young Jerome Baumgӓrtner, an alumnus of the university in Wittenberg[3]. Katherine was at this time 24 years old, and Jerome 25. They began an easy friendship that soon turned to romance. Jerome and Katherine fell in love and discussed marriage. However, when Jerome returned home to Nuremberg, he failed to keep in touch with Katherine, and she began to worry whether his affections had waned. Katherine soon learned that Jerome’s noble family were not accepting of his love for an escaped nun, and Jerome, capitulating to his family’s desires, gave Katherine up without even giving her an explanation. Heartbroken and disappointed, Katherine remained as a member of the Reichenbach household.

Dr. Martin Luther was a close friend of Philipp Reichenbach, and took meals often at the family table. He observed that Katherine von Bora was yet unmarried, and felt a personal responsibility to see her provided for, as she was one of the nuns he had aided in escape. Katherine was known to be a beautiful woman[4], and it seemed unfitting to him that she be unmarried. Luther had, in his mind, a brilliant plan to save Katherine from her singleness. He recommended to her his good friend and pastor Kasper Glatz- a man not a day younger than 60! Katherine refused to even consider the match, and Luther believed her to be a snob and hard-headed. He sent another friend, Von Amsdorf to inquire as to why Katherine would not receive a man who was an accomplished doctor and professor. Katherine was saddened to hear her pastor’s opinion of her, and explained that it was not his position that deterred her, as she would gladly marry another man of such position, even Von Amsdorf or Martin Luther himself! Rather it was the nature of Glatz himself that she rejected.

Von Amsdorf reported this to Luther and challenged him on his own response to Katherine, saying, “What the devil are you doing, trying to coax and force the good Kate to marry that old cheapskate whom she neither desires nor considers with her heart as husband?”

Luther responded somewhat jokingly: “What devil would want to have her then? If she does not like him, she may have to wait a good while for another!”[5] Even in his pretense of shrugging off Katherine, Luther was affected by the fact that Katie had said she would consider marrying him. She was 16 years his junior, and to this point, he had not considered himself a possible player other than as matchmaker. Apparently the impact of her words never left him.[6] However, at this time, he did not act on this stirring of his heart. Luther believed that Katherine was a prideful and somewhat difficult woman[7], somewhat humorous in light of knowledge of the deficiencies of his own character. Nonetheless, he was rather determined to see her married, and if she would not have his choice for her, he would try to obtain her own heart’s desire. Luther set about to convince Jerome Baumgӓrtner to come back to Wittenberg and marry Katherine. He wrote in a letter to Jerome,

“If you want your Katie von Bora, you had best act quickly, before she is given away to someone else who wants her. She has not yet conquered her love for you. I would gladly see you married to each other.”[8]

Nevertheless, Baumgӓrtner did not respond to Luther, and soon announced his engagement to the fourteen-year old daughter of a wealthy nobleman. Katherine was deeply hurt and Luther had no idea how to comfort her.[9] It was not Luther’s work to find a man to console Katherine, however. It was God’s work to teach Katherine to trust Him for her future and to be content in the life she had as a single woman.

Meanwhile, though Martin Luther championed the cause of marriage for former priests, nuns and Christians alike, he himself remained unmarried into his 40’s. He did not deny that he had a desire to be married on a physical and emotional level, and wrote of his own struggle living as an unmarried man[10]. Yet, Luther was sure he was not long for this world, and expected at any moment to die the death of the heretic. He believed if he were to marry that he would soon leave his wife behind by his own imminent death. So, Luther continued to urge others to be married, while at the same time waving away his friends urging that the good Doctor take a wife for himself, not only for his own happiness, but to increase the effect of Luther’s teaching on marriage, telling him essentially, “Practice what you preach!”.

As the years went on, Luther’s feelings on his own life began to change. In his early-forties, as Luther counseled friends to marry, he began to share that he was becoming more inclined to the idea himself.[11] In letters and with his own family, he began to joke about the idea of his getting married and finally giving his parents the grandchildren they had always wanted. However, Martin- being who he was- did not finally make it his ambition to marry until his opponents began to mock the very idea, saying it would be the end of his work. In a letter to a friend, Luther wrote, “If I can arrange it, I will marry Kate in defiance of the devil and all his adversaries.”[12]


Stay Tuned for Part 2 of the story of Martin Luther and Katherine Von Bora!

[1] Justin Taylor, “Martin Luther’s Reform on Marriage” in Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Crossway (2005), 214.


[2] Taylor, 215.


[3] Ibid. 217.


[4]Roland Bainton, Women of the Reformation: In German and Italy, Fortress Press (1971), 24.


[5] Rudolf and Marilynn Markwald, Katharine Von Bora: A Reformation Life, 61.


[6] Bainton, 24.


[7] Taylor, 218.


[8] Martin Luther, D. Martin Luthers Werke:Briefwechsel, 15 vols, J.F.K. Knaake, G. Kawerau, et. al, eds. (Weimar: Hermann Bohlhaus, 1930-1985), 3:357-358.


[9] Taylor, 219.


[10] Martin Luther, What Luther Says: An Anthology. ed, Edward M. Plass, 3 vols in 1, (St Louis: Concordia, 1959,) 2768.


[11] Luther’s Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, trans. and ed., Preserved Smith and Charles M. Jacobs, 2 vols, (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1918), 2:179-180.


[12] Markwald and Markwald, 63.

A Thought on the Thought Life

Reflecting on the beauty of the thought life. Providing we take thoughts captive to Christ and do not quench the Spirit, it is an area in which we have total accountability and yet maintain a degree of virtually complete privacy that is not experienced in any other part of our lives. Consequently, we are provided with amazing opportunity for intimacy with the only One who knows and understands our every thought. No wonder this is so often the first battlefield on which the Enemy measures ferocious attack. Praying that the peace of God would guard our hearts and MINDS in Christ Jesus!

Single in Christ- A message from John Piper

In the middle of a series on marriage, John Piper took a Sunday to give a Biblical theology of singleness. I've read/heard dozens of theologies of marriage, but this was a first.

I almost didn't listen, because I didn't want to hear about how "God loves singles too, and you never know if/when you'll get married." I also didn't want to hear a married person tell me how great I have it being single.
HOWEVER, I did listen, and was blessed. Piper didn't push people toward or away from singleness. He simply presented a Biblical theology of how God views and uses singles. He set up a case for the supremacy of Faith and Regeneration over Marriage and Reproduction.
Whether you're single for a season or for your lifetime, (or if you know, love and minister to singles), I encourage you to give this a listen. Personally, I was challenged to embrace the ministry and calling I have TODAY, even while praying toward a ministry through marriage in the future.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/single-in-christ-a-name-better-than-sons-and-daughters