Katharina Schütz Zell (1497/8 - September 5, 1562) was a Protestant reformer and writer during the Protestant Reformation. She was one of the first Protestant women to marry a clergyman. Katharina lived all of her life in Strasbourg, now part of France.
Katharina Schütz Zell was most likely born in early 1498 in Strasbourg. Her family was not overly wealthy, but probably lived comfortably.
Katharina received an excellent vernacular education. She read and wrote German fluently, and eventually developed basic knowledge of Latin. She continued independent learning throughout her life.
When Katharina was still fairly young, the teachings and writings of Martin Luther gained fame and began to spread. Katharina was introduced to much of these new teachings and views of religion by Matthew Zell, the pastor who took charge of the St. Lawrence Cathedral in Strasbourg in 1518. Katharina eventually started to take these beliefs as her own through Zell s sermons and Luther s teachings.
A few years after Matthew Zell came to Strasbourg, he and Katharina were married by Martin Bucer on December 3, 1523. Katharina Schütz was convinced that she was called to marry Matthew Zell as an expression of her faith in God and her love for others. Katharina was one of the first people to get married to a pastor (something that was not thought too highly of at the time), even before the marriage of Martin Luther. .
Her marriage was what would be seen as a true equal partnership by a society that required that the good wife be silent and obedient, and in which wives usually only achieved independence as widows.
Katharina had two children with Matthew, although they both died at very young ages. Mathew died on January 9, 1548. Though Katharina mourned and grieved his death, this did not stop her work. Katharina herself became ill in 1561 and died on September 5, 1562.
Katharina is noted greatly for her writings and unique personal beliefs. She was very open-minded for a person of her time period and showed it through her actions and writings.
One of Katharina s occupations was that of a pamphleteer. Pamphlets were essential for Protestantism during the Reformation. The pamphlets served to inform a wide audience about current affairs quickly and with dogmatic effectiveness.
As a woman of this time period, Katharina faced challenges that male pamphleteers did not. Katharina would remind her critics that she never forgot her responsibility as a wife and that she was her husband s partner. "This is why my pious husband only called me his curate, although I never stood on the pulpit--something I did not have to do in my line of duties."
Katharina s experiences do not reflect those of the majority of women during the Reformation. Women of this time period were expected to conform to certain roles and rules which were institutionally and socially enforced on them. Katharina broke through these barriers to get her beliefs out to the public.
Katharina also differs from other women reformers in that she was not subject to much threatening opposition as was Argula von Grumbach, another influential pamphleteer.
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Almighty God, we thank you for those women and men in our midst who, like Katharina Zell, work to build up your kingdom not only with words but with deeds--not only the work of the mind but also the work of the heart--not only with pens but with their presence. Fill us, like her, with the wisdom to speak out in defense of your truth. Fill us, like her, with love for you and for our neighbor, that we may serve you and welcome all your people with a mother's heart. Amen.