By marrying Luther, Katie chose a position that enabled her to use her home as a hospital during the Black Plague, take in orphans, host dignitaries and scholars from around the world, and be the deepest encouragement to her husband. Her life was a life of service, in true freedom.

If you were a woman in the 1500s in Germany, your entire life was decided by your guardian. Like children, women had legal guardians who made decisions for them. If a father, brother, or husband wasn’t available, the local authorities would appoint a guardian, much like we do today with orphans. Women couldn’t get married, have a job, own property, or even have legal rights to their children without permission from their guardians.

This is the backdrop of Katharina von Bora’s life, and it’s what makes her rejection of a suitor when she didn’t have a penny to her name so fascinating. Her life shows us that Christian faithfulness isn’t about being married or single but about holding fast to the grace and freedom we’ve been given in Christ.

Life in the Convent

Katharina “Katie” von Bora was born to a lower-level noble family. When she was 5, she was sent to a convent school for girls. It was a fine place to live, and she was treated well. But when she was 10, her father lost all his money, and it was decided she’d become a nun. Most convents required a dowry from the family—a “donation” to take care of the woman for the rest of her life. Since her father had no money, he sent her to a charitable convent that had no minimum dowry. 

When she turned 16, she was old enough to take her vows. What other choice did she have? She couldn’t get married; she couldn’t get a job. This was her life decided for her by her father; there was no other legal option. Moreover, running away from a convent in the Holy Roman Empire was punishable by death.

The convent was silent. Talking and friendships were forbidden. Contact with the outside world, even family, was forbidden. Voices were to be used only for prayer or worship. This was the era when making yourself weak was a sign of spiritual strength. So the women in the convent lived on about 1,000 calories a day, with no meat besides the occasional fish. They were allowed to sleep here and there. It was a situation ripe for additional abuses.

Escape to True Freedom

In 1520, the reformer Martin Luther wrote, “A Christian is the perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, subject to everyone.” This paradox was the crux of his vision of Christian freedom. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, because your salvation is by grace alone. You must be a dutiful servant to your neighbor, because you wear the identity of Christ.

In 1521, Luther was working out the implications of his doctrine of Christian freedom. He taught that if the Christian identity is received freely, it’s not tolerable to spiritually manipulate Christians to get what you want out of them. In his treatise “On Monastic Vows,” Luther proclaimed that anyone in a monastic order forced to take vows against his or her will was free in Christ to leave the order. Soon, monks left their monasteries and returned to their families, or sought jobs and started families of their own. It was years before any nuns attempted the same feat.

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