Katharina von Bora was born in 1499, the daughter of impoverished German nobles, and was educated at the Benedictine convent in Brehna. Instinctively devout, she initially felt deeply drawn to the monastic life, and as a teenager took vows at a Cistercian convent in Nimbschen.

As a young woman, however, Katharina became increasingly critical of many of the abuses that she perceived in the church, and became keenly interested in the movements of…