Helmer, Christine
Katharine von Bora: Dr. Martin Luther's Wife (Stein)
This title is a biography of the wife of Martin Luther, Katharine von Bora.
Author’s Preface
It has been my purpose in ‘Katharine von Bora’, to picture in the peaceful quiet of Martin Luther’s domestic happiness, the man whose influence so largely shaped the course of public events.
The undertaking has not been altogether an easy one; for, while history flows in a copious stream, regarding the Reformer himself, it gives but meager information as to the great man’s wife, the humble, modest woman, who never thrust herself forward, nor sought any personal advantage from her husband’s greatness, - but remained contentedly in the background, glad to do him service, and to enrich her own heart from the abundance of his spiritual riches. Only occasional fragments give us glimpses of Katharine’s life, and out of these I will endeavor to form a complete picture.
It has been my endeavor, so to utilize the material here gathered, that our people may learn to know the wife of its greatest man, - not by name only, but as her husband’s ‘helpmeet’, in the truest sense of the word, as a pattern of domestic virtue, and as a pearl among women.
Table of Contents:
Book First – The Maiden
1. A Conspiracy
2. Disappointed Hope
3. Dawn
4. Freedom
5. Sheltered
6. A Fleeting Fancy
7. Katharine in Trouble and Dr. Martin in Strife with His Friends
8. A Sudden Resolve
9. A Day of Rejoicing
Book Second – The Wife
10. As Sorrowing, Yet Always Rejoicing
11. The Faithful Eckart
12. A New Life
13. “As Dying, and, Behold, We Live”
14. Bereaved and Comforted
15. Alone
16. God’s Inn
17. Peace
18. The Mother and Her Children
19. Risen from the Dead
20. “Lord” Kate
21. Luther’s Last Will
22. Little Lena
23. Once More in Zulsdorf
24. Parting
Book Third – The Widow
25. Alone
26. War
27. More Trouble
28. Glimpses of Sunshine
29. Release