There is no evidence that Katie hated convent life (as some of her contemporaries did, and escaped to write about it). She never spoke ill of her 18 years of confinement. But she did join with 11 other nuns in an escape to freedom. Though often described in terms of an exciting midnight caper, a dozen nuns hiding among herring barrels in a horse-drawn wagon, it was in actuality a most daring and dangerous feat---and a capital crime to kidnap nuns. In fact, it was one of the most stunning “jailbreaks” in history—-a conspiracy carried out by a dozen tight-lipped nuns and several others on the outside. They made it to Wittenberg, without being captured by Duke George of Saxony. But how does an exhausted nun alight gracefully from a wagon with sideboards? What a spectacle it was—-a spectacle captured in Wittenberg by a student writing to a friend: “A wagon load of vestal virgins has just come to town all more eager for marriage than for life. May God give them husbands lest worse befall.”
She wasn't a super-saint or submissive wife as some authors have tried to depict her. Nor was she beloved by her contemporaries. But her fascinating life begs us to get to know her better.
A Run-away Nun
Imagine a little five-year old, one of four children, mother recently deceased, new step-mother with children of her own. Imagine her being taken away to a convent, and then at ten taken to another convent to become a nun for the rest of her life---silence the rule. We can hardly imagine it. It’s unreal; it’s child abuse. That little girl was Katharina von Bora. It cost her father to send her away, but it was a good investment--one less mouth to feed, and less less to claim any inheritance. Convents, however, had many positive qualities. Katie would get an education, nor would she die in childbirth--though it certainly wasn’t unheard of for nuns to give birth.