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blogging, butter, love, marriage, Martin Luther, opinion, romance, the reformation
I speak of Katharina von Bora, the wife of Martin Luther, the man who sparked the protestant revolution.
I enjoy the quirky stuff, the little known facts, like how it’s always all about the butter, as can be seen in this article, How Butter Fueled the Protestant Reformation Never underestimate the importance of good butter, the numerous conflicts that can arise when some people can afford a butter indulgence and others cannot. As Martin Luther once wrote, “Eating butter, they say, is a greater sin than to lie, blaspheme, or indulge in impurity.”
I do sometimes intercede for humanity as a whole, praise the Lord for His infinite patience, and thank Him for His Divine sense of humor.
Another fun quirk of the reformation can be found in the relationship between Martin and his wife Katie. It’s quite the romantic tale, many books have been written about it as this blog recounts, mentioning one I have not yet read, The Christian Lover.
As the story goes, several nuns escaped by hiding in a wagon full of fish barrels, herring I believe, and appealed to Martin Luther for help. He was able to find families to take them in and eventually husbands for all but one, Katie. She apparently had her heart set on Martin Luther himself, in what was rather scandalous at the time since clergy did not often marry. Martin eventually relented with this romantic but quite reluctant declaration, “to please his father, to spite the Pope and the Devil, and to seal his witness before his martyrdom.”
“If I can endure conflict with the devil, sin, and a bad conscience, then I can put up with the irritations of Katy von Bora.”
It’s a bit funny, he’s quite a reluctant husband and declares, “Suddenly and when my mind was on other matters, the Lord snared me with the yoke of matrimony.” As this blog post clearly demonstrates, their marriage was actually ground breaking, revolutionary, more of an arranged thing born of defiance than born of love. He says, “One wakes up in the morning and finds a pair of pigtails on the pillow that were not there before.”
A match made in heaven perhaps, because it soon grows into a romantic and fruitful union, one well preserved in love letters and journal entries. Soon he is deeply in love, full of admiration for her, and his pet names begin to pepper his writing. He calls her “Housewife of the Heart,” “Madam Pig-Marketer”and “My Lord Katie.”
“Lord Katie” was an amazing woman in her own right, often to be found running the brewery, the farm, the boarding house for all her husband’s many guests, and a hospital when people fell sick. They had six children together, took in another four orphans, and she became a great spiritual ally and mentor for her husband.
When he died he made the rather unfashionable decision to appoint her his heir, at a time when women were so seldom granted any inheritance rights at all. “I appoint you, Katie, as universal heiress…”
This was great! I had no idea about it. I always love a great love story!
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Me too! I’ve hardly begun to tell the story properly, but there are many books about it and it’s quite fascinating.
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I seem to only have time for great glimpses of history like this! I haven’t read a book in years…ah, living the dream! Lol
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nothing bets really good butter!!!
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LOL! Butter is everything. Bit funny, we’re Italian, so olive oil is just fine, but if you were a poor farmer back than with nothing more than a cow or two, you couldn’t afford to import olive oil. Eating your own butter became a sin, while the fancier people just bought olive oil or an indulgence.
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now I do love my olive oil as well—- as I claim to be the product of some wild affair of Sophia Loren’s—thing is, she just doesn’t know that I’m hers (being adopted I’ve often mused about my past as such 🙂 )
and I actually order my olive oil from a Ligurian company that still delivers olive oil door to door just like milk use to be delivered—it is actually less expensive then me buying it regularly at the grocery store—go figure—so the moral of this tale…I love my fats—both with both Julia Child and Sophia Loren each playing a role in my small world :)—all of which has nothing to do with your post….sorry for the distraction—- 🙂
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Enjoyed the post! Katie must have been quite a lady.
Also, I was not familiar with that butter story. Thanks.
Because of modern food preservation and transportation technologies, we eat better than the kings did just a century ago. So we don’t appreciate frustrations our ancestors or the poor of our time. Yet think of the American Revolution and that Boston Tea Party. Consider how the spice trade stimulated commerce. Because food is so essential and satisfying our appetites can be so pleasurable, is it any wonder that Jesus directed us to remember Him by celebrating His sacrifice on our behalf with a meal?
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Yes. Tom. Not sure of whether you are aware, but the Boston Tea Party contributed greatly to America’s love for coffee. 🙂 Unfortunately, as Abigail Adams could attest, the Revolution greatly upset the availability of some staples of life, and she would often protest to Mr. Adams about it.
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So enjoyed your excellent post!! What more can one say. Never even considered Martin Luther and his own personal life, especially his love life. Makes me want to curl up with a good book and learn more. Thank you for sharing.
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IB, I knew he had married a former nun, but other than that, knew so little about it. Your statement is rather telling, that they had to “escape” from the nunnery. Monasteries and nunneries could be like prisons to those living within their walls, particularly back then when travel and escape were not as easy. That’s what happens when religion becomes convoluted and power is in the wrong hands.
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PBS had an excellent bio about Martin Luther on TV recently. He was an interesting dude, kinda went off the rails a bit late in life tho 😳
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This love story always had a positive impression on me. I first heard about it when I saw the 2003 movie, “Luther” (Joseph Fiennes), which was well done and well worth watching.
Luther, even though he himself may not have realized it at the time, by getting married and (gasp) falling in love, undid a lot of popular myths held in Medieval Christianity, Much of this mindset came from the influence of Augustine who was overcompensating for the debauchery in his early life. (And you know, Eve deceived Adam…. 🙂 ) This misogynist guilt-trip turned into marriage is only for procreation and sex is sinful fleshly indulgence, etc. Whereas, Paul only said that marriage can be distracting to the rigors of ministry. But, in Luther’s case, marriage was actually an enhancement of his ministry.
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Man the personality of Luther is already something…I imagine Kate has quite a personality as well. Very good post, very interesting how their love grew for one another though it began with a rough beginning…
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