“Katie Luther Visits STHPC”

Reformation Sunday

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, October 26, 2025

(After Choir sings “A Mighty Fortress”)

(dabbing her eyes) – ah, that was one of my husband Martin’s favorite hymns – in fact, he wrote it, you know. He took a common drinking song and made it a tribute to our Lord. He loved music and wrote many hymns – he said, “Why should the devil have all the good music?”

Oh, but I’m forgetting myself: Katharina von Bora Luther (bowing) at your service. Thank you for inviting me. In my day women never spoke from the pulpit. I think it’s a great improvement! Martin believed in the Priesthood of all believers – that is, that all of us have gifts from God and should use them in God’s service and to serve and love our neighbors, as Christ taught us to.

(musing to herself a bit) Yes, I think Martin wouldn’t have minded a woman speaking from the pulpit. And he thought that women should be able to read, too! He thought that everyone should read the Word of God for themselves – not only learned men but  even the ploughboy at his plough and women should be able to read the Bible for themselves.

When Martin made his German translation of the Bible, he asked me to read it and tell him what I thought – was it written so that an ordinary person like me could understand it – not only a learned professor such as himself? I was honored to be able to contribute a small part to such a great undertaking! The Bible in the language of the people! No more would we have to listen to readings in Latin that only the priest could understand, but each one of us could hear and understand the Word of God. That was one of Martin’s greatest ideas!

But, I should tell you something about myself.  My mother died when I was only four.

When father remarried a year later, I was sent away to a nunnery to be educated, and later to take holy vows - one less mouth to feed and one less dowry to pay. I was lucky in a way – most girls did not get to go to school and I loved reading books, but I was sad and lonesome. I didn’t know why was sent away, but back then if your father said you had to become a nun, you didn’t have a choice.

When I was ten I was sent to the convent in Nimbschen, where my Aunt Margaret was the Abbess. There I met another nun, Magdalene von Staupitz, the sister of Martin’s old teacher and confessor, Johann  Von Staupitz. Of course, I didn’t know Martin back then, but outside our cloister walls, some startling things were happening. Father Johann would often write to his sister about them. Then she would share the news with us.

We heard a most astounding thing – that a man called Tetzel was selling documents called indulgences, with the papal seal. They guaranteed that the purchaser would go straight to heaven after death and not have to pass through purgatory. I wondered – could you really get into heaven just by paying money?

Some months later, rumor reached us at the cloister that a young priest, a certain Professor Luther, had written 95 Theses about these Indulgences and many other things that the church needed to reform. He said that God alone could forgive sin, and no amount of money or good works could purchase God’s grace. Now, of course, we are to do good works, but out of gratitude to God, not out of fear of hell. Martin taught me that!  And, he said that that the Bible was the final authority in the church, not the Pope in Rome! These were new ideas for me. I needed some time to think them over. But sometimes the other nuns and I would discuss them privately, especially with Sister Magdalene, whenever she received another letter from her brother.

He was the head of the Augustinian Order, yet he sympathized with many of Luther’s ideas. After all, Martin wasn’t the only one who thought the church needed reform – his was just the loudest voice.  

When I was sixteen, I made my vows as a nun. Life was busy in our convent. I worked in the kitchen and the garden; I learned to brew beer and raise small livestock, like chickens, sheep, and pigs. Of course, I joined the prayers at the prescribed times – we all did, but honestly, I sometimes found them a bit boring. I preferred being out in the sunshine hoeing or weeding the garden, or in the kitchen baking. I sometimes wished I could have a home of my own, instead of becoming a nun, but I told myself, “There’s no use crying over what might have been. I am warm and fed and clothed, and I don’t have to endure the dangers of childbirth…” At least, that’s what I told myself.

From time to time we would hear more about this Luther and his reforms – how his Theses were published in German and circulated throughout the land, how he debated the famous Professor Eck  and was accused of heresy. Finally we heard that the pope himself had called Luther a wild boar that was invading the Lord’s vineyard, the church. He demanded that Luther recant or be excommunicated. Luther and his friends made a big bonfire and burned the pope’s declaration!

Finally he was called before an assembly convened by the Emperor himself, Charles V. But Martin would not take back anything he had written or said. Instead he declared, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me.” I wish I had been there! I would have been so proud of him. Thankfully, his friend, Prince Frederick the Wise, had his men kidnap Luther and take him to his castle.

There he kept him safe from the emperor and the pope, who didn’t really want to start a war over the whole thing.

Around this time, Sister Magdalene had taken to heart Dr. Luther’s teachings that cloistered life was not the best way to serve God. He said that God created male and female so that they could marry and have children, and that anyone could serve God through their work, not just those who separated themselves from the world for prayer and contemplation. Later he even said that a parent washing out a baby’s dirty diapers is serving God, because any task no matter how lowly, can be done to God’s glory. I wonder if he got that idea watching me?

We heard that some nuns and priests were taking Luther’s teachings seriously, abandoning the cloister, and actually marrying! At first I was shocked, but when Sister Magdalene asked me if I would like to leave the convent, I said yes. It hadn’t been my choice in the first place. I was 24, bored with convent life, excited about the changes that were happening in the outside world and eager to be a part of them.

She told me that she had actually written to Luther begging him to help us escape the cloister, and he had asked a sympathetic merchant and city councilman, Leonard Koppe, to help us. On the night of Easter Eve, 1523, Sister Magdalene gathered some twelve of us together – all the sisters who had agreed to leave. We quietly snuck out to the alley beside the convent – somehow Magdalene had acquired a key. Koppe had a wagon filled with empty herring barrels – they smelled so bad, but in we climbed. That night we rode over 30 miles of bumpy roads, worried that we could be discovered and trying to not get sick from the herring smell. By morning we arrived at Herr Koppe’s home, where his wife met us, gave us a bit of broth and bread. We rested and the next day moved on to Wittenberg, to meet Herr Luther!

The rest of my life began that day. I was lucky to be taken in by the famous painter, Lucas Cranach, and his wife. You may have seen the painting he made of me shortly after my marriage to Martin. At the Cranach’s I helped around the house and took care of their children, but I still longed for a home of my own. At 24, was I too old to get married? Most girls were married already by 17. I fell in love with a young theology student named Jerome, but his family would not hear of him marrying a penniless ex-nun.

Two years passed, and I was the only one of the nuns from my convent who was still not married. Had I made a big mistake? I realized that I wasn’t getting any younger. The only two eligible bachelors in my circle were Nicholas Amstel and Martin Luther, both friends of the Cranach’s. Nicholas suggested that I marry an elderly pastor, Caspar Glantz – he was old enough to be my grandfather! I said I would marry Nicholas or his friend Martin and no one else! Soon after that, Martin came to the Cranach house to see me. Without any ceremony, he asked me to marry him, and we were married that very next day! That was 500 years ago this summer. When someone asked him once why he got married, Luther responded that “his marriage would please his father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh, and the devils to weep.”

We spent 21 wonderful years together, until his death, at age 63. We had six children. I was by his side all of that time – and he needed me! His rooms were a mess, his clothes were sometimes untidy. Also, he wasn’t eating right – he didn’t even have a vegetable garden! But I got him straightened out. At least I made sure he had plenty of time for study, preaching, and writing.

I don’t have time to tell you of all that we did together, but I will tell one story that people remember me by:

Sadly, Martin often suffered bouts of melancholy. I think it was because he worked too much and expected too much of himself. I tried to cheer him up, but one time, when he was particularly down, I decided to dress all in black. When he asked me who had died, I said, “Didn’t you hear? God is dead.” “What nonsense,” he answered, “How can God die? He is immortal; He can never die.” “I am glad to hear that,” I replied, “for you are so sad and discouraged, I thought God had died! I’m so relieved to hear that He hasn’t!” I made Martin laugh, and I gave him a big hug and kiss, which helped him mightily to come out of his melancholy.

I owe so much to this man who helped me see that God loves me. Even though I was abandoned by my parents and left the convent without a penny to my name, God was always watching over me. God loves us. God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. All we need do is believe, and even that is by God’s grace. Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone…that is all we need. I still stand by my last words on this earth, “I will cling to my Lord Christ as a burr on a coat.” Amen.

Reference:

Tucker, Ruth. Katie Luther, First Lady of the Reformation: The Unconventional Life of Katharina von Bora. Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Sermon ©Deborah Troester 2025