Martin Luther's wife honoured in her own right

The former East Germany had a difficulty with Martin Luther. The state, which preferred to be called the German Democratic Republic even though there was little democracy to be found there, was ideologically opposed to religion and did its best to discourage religious belief.

It was not averse to taking over or even destroying churches, a notorious example of the latter being the demolition of the old University Church at Leipzig by East Germany's secret police in 1968.

But with the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth looming, the regime was forced to do a spectacular about-turn.

Most of the GDR's cities and towns had been reduced to an appalling state by neglect and industrial pollution, but, anticipating a large influx of tourists for the Luther celebrations due in 1983, bringing badly-needed foreign currency with them, the State invested a huge sum to restore and spruce up the town which then adopted the new designation of Lutherstadt-Wittenberg.

Martin Luther has not tended to be a widely regarded figure here in Ireland either, but for some rather different reasons, which, anyway, have been fading away in a more ecumenical age. Though by no means the first, he is probably the best known of the Protestant Reformers, and Catholic Ireland could hardly have been expected to warm to someone who so publicly broke with Rome - especially one who had been ordained a priest.

After his ordination he graduated in religious studies and became an Augustinian teaching monk at Erfurt. It was from there that, three years later, he was transferred to the new university at Wittenberg, where he had been appointed to the chair of philosophy. After becoming professor of theology, his eloquent and often critical sermons began to attract large crowds.

His doubts about various matters, including the practice of the sale of indulgences, eventually led him to question very publicly what he saw as serious faults in the church and culminated with his most famous act, that of nailing his 95 critical theses to the great wooden door of the Schlosskirche at Wittenberg in 1517, an event considered by many as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

The original door, destroyed in the Seven Years War, was replaced as a memorial to the Reformation by the present elaborate bronze doors which bear the text of the theses in embossed Gutenberg lettering.

The year 1999 will witness further Luther celebrations, not only in Wittenberg but throughout the country, for it marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Katharina von Bora, a name unlikely to be well known in Ireland or anywhere outside Germany.

She was the daughter of a poor Saxon family whose parents sent her to a nearby Cistercian convent where a relation was abbess. After 14 years, when news of the events of the Reformation filtered into the Marienthron Convent, Katharina was one of the nine (some accounts say 11) nuns who signed a letter written to Martin Luther in which they appealed for help to leave the convent. This was successfully arranged through a local merchant who delivered provisions there.

Two years later, in 1525, Luther married Katharina in the same Castle Church of Wittenberg where he had publicly pinned his thoughts seven years before. He asked a friend if anyone had read in the stars "that I would cause my father so much trouble, and get into an argument with the Pope, and take a runaway nun as a wife?" The marriage of the former monk to a former nun was yet another reason for Vatican distaste for Luther.

The couple went on to have six children and if one were to judge by the portraits painted by their friend, Lucas Cranach the Elder, they were not a handsome pair, but Crannach's style was rather austere and he doesn't seem to have painted many beautiful people.

Anyway, the marriage seems to have been a good one - not least because Katharina was an efficient and thrifty housewife, despite the difficulties imposed by his self-imposed workload and frequent travels around Germany.

It lasted 21 years, ending with Martin's death in 1546. Katharina died six years later.

The Marienthron convent, not far from Torgau, was later abandoned. It is now a ruin to which a tablet has since been affixed which, translated, reads: "Katharina von Bora dwelt in this Convent from 1509 to 1523. She was liberated on 4 April 1523 by Councillor Leonhard Koppe of Torgau, and married Dr Martin Luther in Wittenberg on 13 June 1525."

Well over 100 different events, including religious services, concerts, conferences and lectures, have been planned to take place throughout Germany during 1999 to commemorate her birth - the first celebration of a woman of the Reformation.

Dermot James, a retired company executive, has travelled widely in eastern Europe.