Born in approximately 1500 to a Polish noble family, Elisabeth Cruciger (nee von Meseritz) entered religious life as a nun at Marienbusch Abbeyin Treptow, Pomerania at a young age. The abbey belonged to the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré. Significantly, this particular order saw the spiritual life of women as equal to that of men. Elisabeth learned Latin and received a strong spiritual education while at Marienbusch. She learned about the ideas of Luther from Johannes Bugenhagen, who served as a Biblical teacher at a nearby monestary.
Whether due to her conversion to Protestantism or due to a political threat to the abbey, in 1522, Elisabeth left Marienbusch and moved to Wittenburg, where Johannes Bugenhagen had moved the year before. While there, she met Caspar Cruciger, a colleague of Martin Luther who assisted Luther with revising the German translation of the Bible. Martin Luther officiated their wedding in 1524.
Also in 1924, Elisabeth Cruciger’s hymn “Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn” (originally titled “Eyn Lobsanck vom Christo”) appeared in Luther’s hymnal, Eyn Enchiridion oder Handbüchlein. She was, therefore, the first woman of the Reformation to publish a hymn.
From 1548 until 1862 many hymnals and scholars misattributed her hymn to a man, Andreas Knoepken. Andreas Knoepken, an assistant to Burgenhagen in Treptow, had moved to Riga. In 1862, following extensive study of records in Riga, Johannes Geffcken wrote that a 1537 hymnal and order of service for which Knoepken was primarily responsible for compiling, credited the hymn to Cruciger. Why the misattribution controversy persisted so long when such compelling evidence existed remains unclear. Mary Jane Haemig, Professor of Church History at Luther Seminary, argues that while sexism may have played a role, the fact that her husband’s and son’s published ideas ended up on the wrong side of the theological debates resolved by the Formula of Concord may also influenced opinions on the hymn’s authorship.
Cruciger died in 1535, the same year that her hymn was translated into English. Today, in Germany, her hymn is sung each year on the last Sunday after Epiphany. The English translation, The Only Son from Heaven, is 309 in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006).
Author note: These profiles usually include an image of the subject. However, no verified depictions of Elisabeth Cruciger from her lifetime seem to exist. Many internet pages about her feature a painting of an Italian woman, Olympia Fulvia Morata.
Sources:
Haemig, M. J. (2001). Elisabeth Cruciger (1500?-1535): The Case of the Disappearing Hymn Writer. The Sixteenth Century Journal, 32(1), 21–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/2671393
Schneider-Böklen, Elisabeth (2017), “Elisabeth Cruciger – Nun, Minster’s Wife and First Lutheran Poetess”, Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Society, 25: 117–129. https://www.theologinnenkonvent.de/pdf/reformation/ElisabethCruciger-en.pdf
Wikipedia contributors. (2025, May 25). Elisabeth Cruciger. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:28, July 16, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elisabeth_Cruciger&oldid=1292169075
Wikipedia contributors. (2025, June 19). Premonstratensians. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:58, July 16, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Premonstratensians&oldid=1296381209