The Story of the Nun Who Escaped to True Freedom
Reformational Themes
As a mom, is it more honoring to God to sit and have devotions in the morning or to change my baby’s diaper? As a mother, am I more holy if I study my Bible three hours a day instead of thirty minutes? What if that means my kids watch more TV? Does it become less holy then? As my children are growing older and looking at vocations, should I encourage my son to farm with his dad, feeding the world, or become a pastor? Does God prioritize the spiritual over the physical? When do we apply the law, and when do we apply the gospel?
These are actually major Reformational themes that come out in the life of Katharina Von Bora Luther. She was in the first group of nuns that escaped their cloister after Martin Luther wrote his “Freedom of the Christian” and the follow up writings that proclaimed that monks and nuns who were forced to take monastic vows against their will were allowed to leave. Once he wrote that, several monasteries emptied out—including Luther’s (except one older monk who stayed with him).
It was years before any nuns tried the same feat. There were additional legal hurdles they faced as women, and the first group—a dozen nuns from a strict, silent cloister—bravely smuggled themselves out during Easter vigil and arrived disheveled on Luther’s doorstep as if to say, “Here we are. What’s next?”
The Story of Katie Luther
Gretchen Ronnevik
This biography takes middle-graders on an exciting journey through Katie Luther’s life, detailing her courage to leave the convent, her unique marriage to Martin Luther, and the true freedom she found in Jesus Christ.
In theory, what is wrong with being a nun? They spent hours a day in prayer and worship. They led disciplined lives. Was Luther against prayer? Was he against worship? Why would you pull someone out of a “holy” life? That’s what the world wanted to know.
Katharina, “Katie,” was the last nun to get married, and Martin Luther married her not out of love, but out of duty—ironically, to make a point about Christian freedom.
The focus on good works as part of the Roman Catholic faith had become a game of “one up” the next person in being holy.
“I’m more holy because I read one hour of the Bible.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I read two hours.”
“I read six hours.”
“I fast once a week.”
“I fast twice a week.”
“I only eat bread and water.”
“I only eat and drink the Lord’s Supper.”
“I fast from sleeping.”
“I fast from talking.”
Women whose families could not afford a dowry, like Katie’s, would often drop them off at these cloisters to be cared for for the rest of their lives. After her mother died, Katie was dropped off at a cloister school at age five to be educated. When she was ten, her father lost all of his money, and she was sent to a charity cloister for the purpose of becoming a nun.
As a young girl, she was put in this rat race of “who can do the most,” which had in actuality become a situation ripe with abuse—getting no more than 1,000 calories a day, being sleep deprived, and being beaten for using your voice for anything besides prayer or worship and sometimes confession, all in the name of being “holy.”
Luther fought against this abuse, saying we aren’t saved by our works but by the works of Christ alone. So what did that mean? What is the “appropriate” amount to do these things?
What Is Christian Freedom?
Christian freedom, as Luther taught, wasn’t about moderation in these things. It was about resting in Christ and serving and loving your neighbor. Nothing we do can make God love us more. But God has put us on this earth to love our neighbors in his name. Whether that is in church or out of church. He taught that “Satan is the essence of self-righteousness in all of its fury.” In other words, self-righteousness is Satan’s language. The righteousness of Christ is God’s.
For the Christian, Luther taught, there were two kinds of righteousness: righteousness given by Christ (for us) and righteousness that is the outpouring of God’s love through us (for the neighbors around us). The self-righteousness of trying to work our way to please God was a lie from the devil.
After her marriage to Martin Luther, Katie immediately got to work. She spent money given as wedding gifts to scrub down the old monastery where Luther lived, converting it from his old monastery (next to Wittenberg University) to what we would call a conference center or boarding house.
They were ordinary. In that tension between the sacred and the ordinary, they lived a very ordinary life that was fueled by the sacred.
Given a free hand from her husband, she whipped the place into shape. She housed several university students, took in orphans and widows, and at times during plague outbreaks, converted it into a hospital. She had six children—four of them reaching adulthood, and a miscarriage that nearly killed her. She transformed Martin Luther’s disheveled and disorganized house into a shelter for the whole community, enabling him to work more and more effectively.
She became one of his biggest confidants. It was well known that when Luther’s co-workers couldn’t get through to him about an issue, they would often go to Katie to convince him, as he rarely said no to her. Politicians would sometimes hold grudges against her because as they sought Luther’s support on issues, he would seek her counsel and do whatever she recommended—which sometimes was to stay out of it.
They had a very public life, and they allowed scholars and students from the university to take notes at their supper table, where theology was regularly discussed, which meant their fights were sometimes recorded too. The Luthers weren’t perfect.
But that’s just it—they weren’t perfect. They were ordinary. In that tension between the sacred and the ordinary, they lived a very ordinary life that was fueled by the sacred. Their goal wasn’t to prove to God that they were holy so that he would look favorably on them. Their goal was to have such confidence in the blood of Christ making them holy that they reserved their energies for their neighbors. Hearing the word preached and partaking in baptism and the Lord’s Supper were how God built you in your faith. They were all gifts received passively. Katie loved studying the Bible and memorizing the Psalms, she loved singing praise, and she was one of the most disciplined people in Wittenberg.
But none of that made her holy. Only Christ made her holy. She did that all for her neighbors. Memorizing the Psalms fueled her heart and helped her grieve with others in horrific outbreaks of death. But she also did the ordinary work of binding wounds, cooking food, and doing dishes. All of it was made holy in Christ, as Christ was using her as a means to love the people around her.
Gretchen Ronnevik is the author of The Story of Katie Luther: The Nun Who Escaped to True Freedom.
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