Commemoration 12/20/2023 (3rd Wednesday after Pentecost)

Today we commemorate Katharina Luther, née von Bora. Born in 1499, Katharina von Bora was placed into a convent when she was still a child and became a nun in 1515. In April of 1523, Katharina, along with eight other nuns, was rescued from the convent and brought to Wittenberg. In Wittenberg, Martin Luther helped the rescued nuns return to their families or start families of their own. Although initially hesitant to marry — as he feared assassination or execution by Rome — Luther believed that he must place his faith in God and practice what he preached. Katharina and Luther were married on 13 June 1525. God blessed the Luthers’ marriage with six children, and Katharina skillfully managed the Luther household. Although she suffered financial difficulties after Luther’s death in 1546, Katharina remained steadfast in her faith and her care for her children and others. Amongst her last recorded words, Katharina, on her deathbed, said that she would ‘stick to Christ as a burr to cloth.’