KATHARINA VON BORA
Katharina von Bora was the wife of the great Bible translator and Reformer Dr Martin Luther. She was born in Saxony on 29 January 1499. Her mother died young and, on remarrying, her father, Hans von Bora, a nobleman of modest means, enrolled the five-year old in a nunnery. There she spent her young years learning about saints and legends and was surrounded by relics, 367 in all, supposedly from Christ’s crib, cross, crown and cloth.
As she started school, Martin Luther, a brilliant young law student, having been almost killed by lightning, entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. There, in penance and agony of soul he tried to find God’s assurance of justification. The Church, unhappily, could not help him. Pope Julius II was rebuilding Rome’s St Peter ‘s Church in great splendour and was raising the huge funds needed by selling  indulgences  (remission of sins) . These were pedaled i n a particularly scandalous way by a monk called Tetzel. Martin Luther was outraged. “The just shall live by faith,” he said. It is only Scripture, only grace, only faith, indeed only Christ Himself who can make a man right with God. On 31 October 1517 he nailed 95 Theses on to the Castle Church door of his parish of Wittenberg , and his teachings spread across Europe like a cleansing fire. Neither Pope nor Emperor could silence him, for his heart and mind were held captive by the Word of God.
Katharina von Bora took her religious vows in 1515, but she, like many others, had also been touched by the teachings of Luther. Disillusioned with the worthless vows she had taken she wanted to give up the religious life. But her relatives were fearful of the law and would not aid her. So she and eight other nuns turned to Martin Luther for help. The latter had a saintly old friend, Leonhard Koppe, who used to deliver barrels of herrings to the nunnery. This man secretly picked up the nine escapees, hid them in his covered wagon and took them to Wittenberg. It was the eve of Easter Day, 5 April 1523, the remembrance of Christ’s Resurrection. Luther provided for the girls, and within two years most of them were married. To avoid scandal he wrote a letter to the Protestant Churches justifying the deed, for he rightly expected this would spark off a general flight of nuns and monks.
In Wittenberg Katharina first stayed with the family Reichenbach, and then with the family Cranach. Lukas Cranach was the Duke’s court painter and the mayor of Wittenberg. He later painted her portrait, too, but he could not capture her spirit. She was not beautiful, but lively and attractive. Erasmus of Rotterdam described her as ‘winsome and delightful.’ She was pious, self assured, dutiful, and hard-working.   Luther at first thought she was proud. Hence, at times he later jokingly called her “Mein Herr Kathe.”
While in Wittenberg, Katharina fell in love with the godly patrician Hieronymus Baumgartner. He, too, loved her dearly but his family discouraged marriage to ‘a run away nun.’ When another theologian, Dr Glatz, sought her hand, she declined and asked a friend of Luther ‘s to intercede for her: Please not to give her in marriage to Dr Glatz, she said. She would be willing to marry either Nikolaus von Amsdorf or Luther himself – but nobody else.
Up to that time Luther had not thought of marriage , for he felt that his life was threatened by Pope, Church and Emperor. But he realized that celibacy was an instrument of papal oppression and needed to be addressed as part of the Reformation. For the Bible says: “If anyone aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified… He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive…” (1 Timothy 3)
When at last he proposed to Katharina, he was 41 and she was 26. He was not, as he later said, in love with her, but as soon as he had married her, on 13.6.1525, he praised God, saying: “A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.” (Proverbs 31) His financial position improved by her disciplined house keeping. His estate flourished, and his home life was loving and orderly. Duke Frederick had given him the Augustinian cloister as a wedding gift, and Katharina kept open house for a great number of Luther ‘s students, colleagues and friends. She also oversaw the cloister’s farming, cared for its livestock, and managed its brewery. She bore Luther six children of whom two died young. Luther was so happy with her that he called her “my Catie” and “the Morning Star of Wittenberg.”
Katharina and Martin Luther were the heart of Wittenberg and indeed, Wittenberg was the spiritual centre of Germany, if not of Christendom itself. This godly pair, committed to Jesus Christ with heart and soul, fearlessly reformed not only the Church, but also the Home and the State, imprinting on them the image and Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Redeemer. Katharina died on 20 December 1552, six years after her husband, as the result of a carriage accident. Her biographer, Prof. Kroker, said: “For Martin Luther she was the right wife, and only by marriage with her did he become the ‘complete’ Luther.”
Soli Deo Gloria.
Dorothea Scarborough.- South Africa
Source: Ernst Kroker, Katharina von Bora.
