Magdalena Luther (4 May 152920 September 1542) was the third child and second daughter of German priest and iconic figure of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

and his wife,

Katharina von Bora Katharina von Bora (; 29 January 1499 – 20 December 1552), after her wedding Katharina Luther, also referred to as "die Lutherin" ("the Lutheress"), was the wife of Martin Luther, German reformer and a seminal figure of the Protestant Refor ...

. She died at the age of thirteen.

Life

Magdalena was born in

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north of ...

as the couple's third child and second but first surviving daughter, as her older sister, Elisabeth, had died the year before Magdalena was born, at the age of seven months. Luther reported to Nicholas von Amsdorf that Katharina had gone into labour and after three hours, had been delivered, without any difficulties, of a perfectly healthy baby daughter.Hendrix, p. 76 She was a much loved child and she was nicknamed ''Lenchen'' inside her family. Luther also asked Amsdorf to be godfather to "the said little heathen and to help her nterholy Christendom through the holy, precious sacrament of

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

. During the

Diet of Augsburg The Diet of Augsburg were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in the German city of Augsburg. Both an Imperial City and the residence of the Augsburg prince-bishops, the town had hosted the Estates in many such sessi ...

, in 1530, Luther received a portrait of the one-year-old Magdalena from his wife and thanked her by offering suggestions for weaning that he had received from

Argula von Grumbach Argula von Grumbach (; 1492 – c. 1554) was a Bavarian writer and noblewoman who, starting in the early 1520s, became involved in the Protestant Reformation debates going on in Germany. She became the first Protestant woman writer, publishing l ...

, one of the few women whose writing in favour of the

are extant.

Death

Magdalena died in

in her father's arms after a prolonged illness. Luther's letters and Table Talk testify that the death of Magdalena was an extremely trying time for both her parents and her older brother Hans, who was summoned home to be with his sister at the very end. It was later written:

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luther, Magdalena 1529 births 1542 deaths People from Wittenberg Martin Luther German Lutherans Magdalena Child deaths