Journal: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal
Volume: RPTJ 04:1 (Fall 2017)
Article: Katharina Luther (1499–1552)
Author: Rebecca VanDoodewaard

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Katharina Luther (1499–1552)1

Rebecca VanDoodewaard

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.2Before 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.3While 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.4And 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

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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...