Katharina von bora biography of rory

Katharina von Bora

Wife of Martin Luther (c. –)

Katharina von Bora (German:[kataˈʁiːnaːfɔnˈboːʁaː]; 29 January ? – 20 December ), after her wedding Katharina Luther, also referred to as "die Lutherin" ('the Lutheress'),^[1] was the wife of the German reformer Martin Luther and a seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation.

Although little is known about her, she is often considered to have been important to the Reformation, her marriage setting a precedent for Protestant family life and clerical marriage.^[2]

Ancestry

Katharina von Bora was the daughter to a family of Saxon lesser nobility.^[3]^[4]^[5] According to common belief, she was born on 29 January in Lippendorf, but there is no evidence of this in contemporary documents.

Due to there being multiple branches in her family and the uncertainty of her birth name, there are diverging theories about her place of birth.^[6] One of them proposes that she was born in Hirschfeld and that her parents were Hans von Bora zu Hirschfeld and his wife, born Anna von Haugwitz.^[7]^[8] It is also possible that Katharina was the daughter of Jan von Bora auf Lippendorf and his wife Margarete, both of whom were only mentioned in ^[9]

Early life

Her father sent then five-year-old von Bora to a Benedictineconvent in Brehna in to be educated, according to a letter Laurentius Zoch sent to Martin Luther in ^[10] At the age of nine, she was moved to Nimbschen Abbey, Cistercian people named Marienthron ('Mary's Throne') neighboring Grimma, where her maternal aunt was a nun.^[11] Von Bora's presence is in the financial accounts of /^[12]

After years of being a nun, von Bora became interested in the growing reform movement and grew dissatisfied with cloistered life.

Conspiring with several other sisters, she contacted Luther and begged for his assistance.^[13] On 4 April , Holy Saturday, Luther sent Leonhard Köppe, a merchant and councillor of Torgau who regularly delivered herring to the convent.

The nuns escaped by hiding in his covered wagon among the fish barrels, and fled to Wittenberg.^[14]

Luther asked the family of the nuns to admit them into their houses, but they declined, possibly because this would have made them accomplices to a crime under canon law.^[15]

Within two years, Luther was fit to arrange marriages or uncover employment for all of the escaped nuns except von Bora.

She was first housed with the family of Philipp Reichenbach, the municipal clerk of Wittenberg, then with Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife, Barbara. Von Bora had a number of suitors, including Hieronymus Baumgartner from Nuremberg, and a pastor, Kaspar Glatz from Orlamünde, but none of the proposals resulted in marriage.

She told Luther's friend and fellow reformer, Nicolaus von Amsdorf, that she would be willing to marry only Luther or von Amsdorf.^[16]

Marriage to Luther

Martin Luther, as well as many of his friends, was at first unsure of whether he should marry.

Philip Melanchthon thought that this would pain the Reformation by causing scandal. Luther eventually decided that his marriage would 'please his father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh, and the devils to weep'.^[16] year-old Von Bora and year-old Luther married on 13 June , before witnesses including Justus Jonas, Johannes Bugenhagen, and Barbara and Lucas Cranach.^[17] A small wedding breakfast was held the next morning, and a more formal, universal ceremony on 27 June, presided over by Bugenhagen.^[18]

The couple took up residence in the former dormitory and educational institution of Augustinian friars studying in Wittenberg (known as the 'Black Monastery'), a wedding gift from John, Elector of Saxony, brother of Luther's protector Frederick III, Elector of Saxony.^[19] Katharina immediately took on the task of managing the monastery's vast holdings.

Katharina von Bora (German: [kataˈʁiːnaː fɔn ˈboːʁaː]; 29 January ? – 20 December ), after her wedding Katharina Luther, also referred to as "die Lutherin" ('the Lutheress'), [1] was the wife of the German reformer Martin Luther and a seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation.

She bred and sold cattle and ran a brewery to provide for their family, the numerous students who boarded with them, and her husband's visitors. In times of epidemics, she operated a hospital with nurses, active alongside them.

Luther called her the 'boss of Zulsdorf', after the farm they owned, and the 'morning star of Wittenberg' for her habit of rising at 4 a.m.^[2]

Based on Luther's descriptions, his wife, whom he nicknamed 'HerrKäthe', exerted much rule over his life.

She might have even influenced his decisions to a degree; Luther said that his wife 'convince[d] [him] of whatever' she pleased', and explicitly afforded her 'complete control' over the household, as prolonged as 'his rights' were 'preserved', since '[f]emale government has never done any good'.

She thus assisted her husband with running their estate and directed renovations when necessary.^[21]Anecdotal evidence suggests that Katharina Luther played a wife's role as taught by her husband's movement: she depended on him financially (although she also increased their estate's profits), and respected him as a 'higher vessel', always calling him 'Herr Doktor'.

He reciprocated by occasionally consulting her on church matters.^[22]

Katharina bore six children: Hans (–), Elisabeth (–), Magdalena (–), Martin (–), Paul (–), and Margarete (–). She also suffered a miscarriage on 1 November The Luthers raised four orphaned children, including Katharina's nephew, Fabian.^[23]

Significance of the marriage

The marriage of von Bora to Luther is very important in the history of Protestantism, specifically in regard to the development of its views on marriage and gender roles.

While Luther was not the first cleric to marry because of Reformation ideas, he was one of the most prominent. As he argued publicly for clerical marriage and produced much anti-Catholic propaganda, his marriage became a natural target for his enemies.^[24]

After Luther's death

When Martin Luther died in , Katharina was left in difficult financial straits without Luther's salary as professor and pastor, even though she owned land, properties, and the Black Cloister.

She had been counselled by Martin Luther to move out of the ancient abbey and sell it after his death, and move into much more modest quarters with the children who remained at home, but she refused.^[25] Luther had named her his sole heir in his last will.

His will could not be executed, however, because it did not conform with Saxon law.^[26]

Almost immediately after, Katharina had to leave the Black Cloister, now called Lutherhaus, by herself, at the outbreak of the Schmalkaldic War, fleeing to Magdeburg.

After she returned, the approaching war forced another flight in , this time to Braunschweig. In July , at the block of the war, she was able to return to Wittenberg.^{[citation needed]}

After the war, the buildings and lands of the monastery had been torn apart and laid waste.

Cattle and other farm animals had been stolen or killed. If she had sold the land and the buildings, she could have had a good financial situation.

Although little is known about her, she is often considered to have been important to the Reformationher marriage setting a precedent for Protestant family life and clerical marriage. Katharina von Bora was the daughter to a family of Saxon lesser nobility. Due to there being multiple branches in her family and the uncertainty of her birth name, there are diverging theories about her place of birth. Her father sent then five-year-old von Bora to a Benedictine convent in Brehna in to be educated, according to a letter Laurentius Zoch sent to Martin Luther in

Financially, they could not remain there. Katharina was able to support herself thanks to the generosity of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, and the princes of Anhalt.^[27]

She remained in Wittenberg in poverty until , when an outbreak of the Black Plague and a harvest failure forced her to leave the capital once again.

She fled to Torgau, where she was thrown from her cart into a watery ditch near the municipality gates. For three months, she went in and out of consciousness, before dying in Torgau on 20 December , at the age of She was buried at Torgau's Saint Mary's Church, far from her husband's grave in Wittenberg.

She is reported to have said on her deathbed, 'I will stick to Christ as a burr to cloth.'^[28]

By the time of Katharina's death, the surviving Luther children were adults. After Katharina's death, the Black Cloister was sold back to the university in by his heirs.^{[citation needed]}

Margareta Luther, born in Wittenberg on 27 December , married into a noble, wealthy Prussian family, to Georg von Kunheim (Wehlau, 1 July – Mühlhausen [now Gvardeyskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast], 18 October , the son of Georg von Kunheim [–] and wife Margarethe, Truchsessin von Wetzhausen [–]) but died in Mühlhausen in at the age of thirty-six.^[29]

Commemoration

Katharina von Bora is commemorated on 20 December in the Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran churches in the United States.^[30] In , she was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day on 20 December.^[31]

In addition to a statue in Wittenberg and several biographies, an opera of her life now keeps her memory alive.

References

Citations

^Rixner, Thaddä Anselm (). Handwörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache (in German). Vol.&#;1. Sulzbach: J. E. von Seidel'schen Buchhandlung. p.&#; Retrieved 11 May &#; via Google Books.
^ ^a^bCurry, Andrew (20 October ).

"How a Runaway Nun Helped an Outlaw Monk Change the World". National Geographic. Archived from the first on 15 April Retrieved 11 May
^Fischer, Fritz; Stutterheim, Eckart von ().

"Zur Herkunft der Katharine v. Bora, Ehefrau Martin Luthers" [On the Origins of Katharine v. Bora, Wife of Martin Luther]. Archiv für Familiengeschichtsforschung (in German): –
^Wagner, Jürgen ().

"Zur mutmaßlichen Herkunft der Catherina v. Bora: Einige bisher unbeachtete Urkunden zur Familie v. Bora" [On the Presumed Origins of Catherina v. Bora. Some Hitherto Unnoticed Documents on the v. Bora Family] (PDF). Genealogie: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Familienkunde (in German): – Retrieved 11 May &#; via Familienarchiv Wagner.
^Wagner, Jürgen ().

"Die Beziehungen von Luthers Gemahlin, Catherina v. Bora, zur Familie v. Mergenthal.
Think of bold women in our faith tradition, and Katharina von Bora Luther might immediately come to brain. Katie, as we fondly dial her, was born in the eastern German state of Saxony on January 29, Hers was a noble family, but. Katie Luther was a wife, a family without much wealth.
Wi(e)der eine Legende"(PDF). Familienforschung in Mitteldeutschland (in German): – &#; via Familienarchiv Wagner.
^Thoma, Albrecht (). Katharina von Bora: Geschichtliches Lebensbild (in German).

Berlin: Georg Reimer. Retrieved 11 May &#; via Plan Gutenberg.
^Hirschfeld, Georg von (). "Die Beziehungen Luthers und seiner Gemahlin, Katharina von Bora, zur Familie von Hirschfeld" [The Relations of Luther and His Wife, Katharina von Bora, to the von Hirschfeld family].

Beiträge zur sächssischen Kirchengeschichte (in German) (2): 83– Retrieved 11 May &#; via SLUB.
^Liebehenschel, Wolfgang (). Der langsame Aufstieg des Morgensterns von Wittenberg: eine Studie und eine Erzählung über die Herkunft von Katharina von Bora [The Slow Increase of the Morning Star of Wittenberg: A Study and Narrative of the Origins of Katharina von Bora] (in German).

Ziethen. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
^Wagner, Jürgen (). "Zur Geschichte der Familie v. Bora und einiger Güter in den sächsischen Ämtern Borna und Pegau" [On the History of the v. Bora Family and Some Estates in the Saxon Districts of Borna and Pegau.] (PDF).

Genealogie: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Familienkunde (in German). 30 (4): – Retrieved 11 May &#; via Familienarchiv Wagner.
^D. Martin Luthers Werke&#;: kritische Gesamtausgabe [The Works of D.

Martin Luther: Complete Critical Edition] (in German). Vol.&#;4. Weimar: Hermann Böhlau. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;
^Weber, Erwin (). "th Anniversary of Katharine von Bora". The Lutheran Journal.

68 (2). Archived from the original on 16 February Retrieved 11 May &#; via Internet Archive.
^CDS Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae II 15 Nr.
^Kilcrease, Jack (20 December ).

"Katharina von Bora Luther". Lutheran Reformation. Retrieved 11 May
^Bainton, Roland H. (). Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. Abingdon-Cokesbury.
He had already posted his Theses and had left his secret confinement to the Wartburg behind him. All the while, he translated the Bible into German. Back then, no one could have guessed how significant the Protestant Reformation would twist out to be. In facts, I was fed up with life in the convent.
p.&#; ISBN&#;.
^Rines, George Edwin, ed. (). The Encyclopedia Americana. Bora, Katharina von. ISSN&#; LCCN&#; OCLC&#;
^ ^a^bGermany, TourComm.

"Katharina von Bora (–)" (in German).
^Rix, Herbert David (). Martin Luther: The Man and the Image. Ardent Media. p.&#; ISBN&#;. Retrieved 12 June &#; via Google Books.
^"Bora, Katharina von"&#;.

New International Encyclopedia. Vol.&#;III.
^D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (in German). Vol.&#;2. Weimar: Hermann Böhlau. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;
^Treu, Martin (). "Katharina von Bora, the Gal at Luther's Side".

Lutheran Quarterly. 13 (2): – &#; via Atla RDB.
^Karant-Nunn, Susan C.; Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E., eds. (). Luther on Women: A Sourcebook(PDF). Cambridge University Press.
Katharina von Bora Katharina von Bora was born inthe daughter of an impoverished nobleman. In she went to the convent school of the Benedict order in Brehna adjacent Halle and entered the convent of Nimbschen near Grimma; only in german in In she took her vows and became a nun at the soonest possible date. Easter ofKatherina fled with 11 other nuns from the convent in Nimbschen to Wittenberg and found shelter with the family of Lucas Cranach the Elder.
ISBN&#;. Retrieved 11 May
^Peterson, Sarah Lynn (3 February ). "Luther's Later Years ()". .
^Smith, Jeanette C. (). "Katharina von Bora Through Five Centuries: A Historiography". The Sixteenth Century Journal.

30 (3): – doi/ JSTOR&#; S2CID&#; Retrieved 11 May
^Bring, Johan Theophil (). The Wife and Home of Luther.
Katharina von Bora - World History Encyclopedia: Katharina von Bora (l. , also famous as Katherine Luther) was a former nun who married Martin Luther (l. ) in She, along with some fellow nuns, escaped their convent with Luther's help in in response to his reform movement.
Stockholm.: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Kopp, Eduard. "Adlige und Nonne – Gärtnerin, Brauerin, Köchin und Finanzvorstand im Hause Luther" [Noblewoman and Nun: Gardener, Brewer, Cook, and Financial Director of the Luther Household].

Luther (in German).
^"Späte Jahre" [Later Years]. Lutherin. Retrieved 16 June
^Fisher, Mary Pat (). Women in Religion. Recent York: Pearson Longman.

p.&#; ISBN&#; &#; via Internet Archive.
^"Margaretha von Kunheim". geni_family_tree. 17 December Retrieved 16 June
^Lutheran Service Manual, xiii. Concordia Publishing House,
^"General Convention Virtual Binder".

. Archived from the original on 13 September Retrieved 22 July

Works cited

Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, New York: Penguin, , c p. ISBN&#;
Lehman (). Luther's Works.

Vol.&#; edited and translated by Theodore G. Tappert. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Katharina von bora biography of rory