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Think of bold women in our faith tradition, and Katharina von Bora Luther might immediately come to mind. Katie and Martin Luther received the former Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg known as the Black Cloister as a wedding gift, and soon Katie was managing all the household affairs. She was a frugal and shrewd entrepreneur: She raised and bred cattle. She ran a brewery. She took in students and professors as boarders. She had several gardens, which fed both her family (in time she and Luther had six children) and the boarders. She managed the stables. Using nursing skills learned while in the cloister, Katie cared for many of the local ill. She often participate in Luther’s famous table talks. She even assisted a call committee in securing a new pastor, at Luther’s request. Katie was a Renaissance woman, excelling in many areas. We might say there’s a bit of Katie in all of us.
This message is excerpted from “A Bold Life of Faith” by Linda Post Bushkofsky, a 2009 resource of the Women of the ELCA. Today we commemorate Katharina von Bora (“Katie”) Luther, renewer of the church, 1552.