While the marriage didn’t begin as a standard love match, a true romance of mutual respect and affection soon grew between Martin and Katharina. Martin, at times, consulted her on church matters and allowed her to deal with his publishers. Because she oversaw the household, Martin could devote his time to the church and the University. He developed a sincere respect for his wife and loved her deeply.
On Easter Day, April 4, 1523, Leonhard Köppe smuggled a group of nuns who were hiding in herring barrels out of a Cistercian convent in Nimbschen. One of these nuns was Katharina von Bora, who later became the wife of Martin Luther.
Katharina had lived in convents since she was very young, placed there by her parents who were too poor to supply her dowry. Unhappy there, Katharina found both the opportunity and inspiration to escape when the Protestant Reformation began to spread. She and several other nuns secretly contacted Martin Luther and asked for help to escape the monastery. Luther obliged.
At first, Luther and Köppe attempted to convince the nuns’ families to take them back. Their families refused, possibly because it was against canon law to take in an escaped nun. Instead, they found employment for as many as possible, and several others were married off to students training for the pastorate.
After two years, only Katharina remained. After neither of the two potential marriages arranged for her worked out, she told Nikolaus von Amsdorf, Luther’s friend and coworker, that she would only marry him or Luther. No one else.
Luther was reluctant to marry. After all, he had been declared an imperial outlaw at the Diet of Worms (1521), so anyone who found him could legally kill him. Understandably, he expected his life would end burned at the stake as a heretic. Nonetheless, he eventually agreed to marry Katharina in a small, private ceremony on June 13, 1525.