Sabbatical with Pastor Curtis: Where Katie Von Bora (Luther) Was a Nun

After reading the title of today's blog, you might be asking yourself, where in the world is Nimbschen? Well, it's about a forty minute walk south from the town of Grimma, Germany. Grimma is approximately 20 miles southeast of Leipzig and 30 miles south of Torgau. Why did we go there? Good question. We went to visit the ruins of the St. Marienthron (Mary's Throne) Monastery in Nimbschen. This is where Katherina was transferred to at the age of nine. Prior to coming to St. Marienthron, she had been at Benedictine Convent in Brehna, Germany since her father put her there at the age of five. She was transferred to this particular abbey because it is where her mother's sister was living as a nun. Since her father was an impoverished farmer and couldn't pay to keep her there, he abandoned her and never came to see her, not even on her wedding day. With nowhere to go she took her vows to become a nun at the age of 15 and lived there at the monastery in Nimbschen until she escaped to Wittenberg.

So, why did Katherine von Bora decide to leave the monastery? To hopefully find a husband. It was really the only way out. Women did not have the rights of men and because of that found it very difficult to find a job, in every jurisdiction was unable to purchase property and could not live independently on their own. So, the only way out was to get married.

What led to her escape was the fact that she had heard the reformed message of Dr. Martin Luther. Word had gotten to the nuns that monastic living was actually against the Word of God. He preached that you could never receive the kingdom of heaven through any amount of good works done to show God how good and righteous you are. She along with other nuns and fellow friars grew dissatisfied with the cloistered life knowing that works cannot earn you a place in the kingdom of heaven. So many left that the monastaries and convents began to close. More men left than women because men could manage in the world on their own where as I mentioned before, it was mostly impossible for women to live without marrying.

So, how to get away? Actually, a man named Leonhard Koppe brought supplies to the women in Nimbschen from Torgau on a regular basis. Conspiring with the sisters, Luther was contacted and they begged for his help. On Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday), Luther sent Leonhard to go and pick them up in his supply wagon. Having a delivery of herring which he carried in barrels, the nuns escaped hiding in his covered wagon by night and he took them to Wittenberg about 60 miles away.

When she arrived in Wittenberg, Luther assigned her to stay with the Philipp Reichenbach family. Philipp had volunteered their services to help the nuns for their friend Luther. Philipp was the municipal clerk of Wittenberg at the time. After a period of time she got to know the Lucas Cranach family and was invited to come and live with them. She accepted. After being set up to marry a couple of different men chosen for her by Luther, she finally let it be known that she wanted to marry Luther and had no interest in the men chosen for her. She was only 26 and Martin was close to 42 at the time of their marriage. It was more out of necessity she married than it was love. For Martin it was more that he was doing the honorable thing as a Christian and helping out a poor former nun who was in a difficult situation.

About his marriage to Katherina, Luther said, he married to "please his father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh and the devils to weep." Enjoy the pictures.