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Katharina von Bora
On the eve of Easter Sunday in 1523, while Martin Luther’s sermons were igniting religious protest across Germany, 12 nuns escaped from a convent near Grimma, Saxony, and fled to Wittenberg, where they petitioned Luther for aid. Disowned by their families and with nowhere else to turn, nine of them took refuge in the home of Luther’s friend the painter Lucas Cranach until marriage arrangements could be made for them. The last to be married was 24-year-old Katharina von Bora, a proud woman from an aristocratic but impoverished family. In June 1525, nearly all of Wittenberg was shocked to learn that she had offered her hand in marriage to Luther, the former monk and celebrated theologian. While marriage among members of the clergy was not unheard of at the time, Luther’s decision to marry startled even his friends. Like Katharina, he had once taken a vow of chastity. He later argued the clergy should be free to marry, but swore that for his part, he would remain single. But in the spring of 1525, he had a change of heart. He married Katharina in a quiet ceremony on June 13 and celebrated with a nuptial feast two weeks later. The University of Wittenberg presented the couple with a silver goblet. The city magistrate gave them wine, 20 guilders and a barrel of beer. Life at Home But by all accounts, their marriage was a happy one. Katharina settled in at the Augustinian monastery where Luther had once lived as a monk. They raised six children of their own, and took in the six children of Luther’s sister after her death. They welcomed guests and boarders. “A strangely mixed group of young people, students, young girls, widows, old women and children” filled their home, according to one observer. Katharina had lived in a convent from the age of five, but she quickly took to the task of running a household, making the most of Luther’s modest salary. She raised vegetables, figs and mulberries in the family garden, drove a wagon, managed a farm, bred cattle, kept a fish pond, grew hops and brewed beer. Luther called her a “pious, faithful, and devoted wife.” He also complained she was bossy, and called her “Lord Katie.” Their marriage lasted 21 years, until Luther’s death in 1546. The following year, Katharina fled Wittenberg in the wake of the Smalkaldian War. When she returned, much of her property was in ruins. In 1552, the plague entered Wittenberg, and again she was forced to flee. Along the way she was thrown from her carriage; an illness followed, and she died of consumption at age 53.
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