Born in Strasburg in 1497 to a large artisan class family, Katharina Schutz was the fifth of ten children. Katharina received sufficient education to read and write fluently in German, but not Latin. Devout, she attended church, performed good works, and read the Bible in German. She considered herself a “Church mother,” someone who cared for all people without respect to theological differences.
In 1521, Father Matthew Zell arrived in Strasbourg and brought the teachings of Martin Luther with him. Then, on December 3, 1523, Katharina Schutz married Matthew Zell. At the time, clerical marriage was still extremely controversial. Roland Bainton writes that theirs was the fourth such marriage. Rumors spread that Matthew Zell abused his wife. Additionally, the bishop excommunicated the married priests. In response, Katharina wrote the popular pamphlet “Apologia for Matthew Zell on Clerical Marriage.” In the text, she insisted that no abuse occurred, that scripture supports the concept of clerical marriage (in comparison to priests having children out of wedlock), and she could certainly speak for herself. She wrote:
“You remind me that the Apostle Paul told women to be silent in church. I would remind you of the word of this same apostle that in Christ there is no longer male or female and of the prophesy of Joel: ‘I will pour forth my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.’ I do not pretend to be John the Baptist rebuking the Pharisees. I do not claim to be Nathan upbraiding David. I aspire only to be Balaam’s ass, castigating his master.”
As a “free city” following a rebellion against the sitting bishop in 1262, Strasbourg enjoyed a fair amount of autonomy, allowed some freedom of religion, and remained neutral during the Thirty Years War. It did host a number of refugees, however. In July 1524, Catholic leaders in Kentzingen expelled 150 men and their Lutheran pastor. The men subsequently fled to Strasbourg. The Zells reportedly housed and fed 80 of these men in their parsonage for several weeks. Katharina also wrote another pamphlet, Letter of Consolation to the Suffering Women of Kentzingen, for the women those men left behind. After the distribution of this pamphlet, Martin Luther wrote to Katharina, “My dear! … God has so richly given you His grace so that you … personally see and are acquainted with His kingdom, which is concealed from so many people.”
A significant reform of the Reformation brought theBible and the church liturgy into local languages understood by the common people. Katharina edited a Strasbourg edition of Michael Wiesse’s Bohemian Bretheren Hymnbook. Determined to make it as accessible as possible, Katharina broke it into four small, and thus less expensive, volumes. Elsie Anne McKee explained that Katharina kept the original lyrics, but changed many of the tunes in the interest of variety and familiarity. Additionally, in the interest of intelligibility, she assigned one word to one note. And, unlike Wiesse, printed the first stanza of lyrics directly under the corresponding note so that the tune could easily be followed.
In the following years, Katharina continued to care for the people of Strasbourg. She served as a nurse during a plague in 1541. After the death of Matthew in 1548, she engaged in a spirited theologicaldebate with Matthew’s successor, Ludwig Rabus, over Rabus move away from Reformed views. Next, Katharina published a commentary on Psalms 51 and 130 as well as the Lord’s Prayer, influenced by her grief over Matthew’s death.
Widowed and childless, Katharina continued to provide hospitality at the parsonage, where she was allowed to remain, and nurse those in need for the rest of her life. A few years before her death in 1562, she wrote to a friend:
“I see before my eyes and welcome the time of my release; I rejoice in it, and know that to die here will be my gain, that I lay aside the mortal and perishable and put on the everlasting immortal and imperishable. I am now sixty years old, and I have walked before God in fear of Him and despising the world for fifty years, so that I can say with the holy Ambrose: “I have lived so that I am not ashamed to continue to live among the faithful, but I do not fear to die, for I am certain that in Christ I will live again and that in Him I have a gracious God forever.”
Sources:
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, August 27). Katharina Zell. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:18, October 23, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katharina_Zell&oldid=1308130765VanDoodewaard, R. (2024, October 1). Reformation women: Katharina Schutz Zell. Tabletalk. https://tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/reformation-women-katharina-schutz-zell/
- Mark, J. J. (2022, April 15). Katharina Zell. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Katharina_Zell/
- McKee, E. (n.d.). She Would Follow Only Christ | Christian History Magazine. Christian History Magazine. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/zell-would-follow-only-christ
- Mikkola, S. (2022, May 19). By the Grace of God: Women’s Agency in the Rhetoric of Katharina Schütz Zell and Martin Luther. The Scholar & Feminist Online. https://sfonline.barnard.edu/by-the-grace-of-god-womens-agency-in-the-rhetoric-of-katharina-schutz-zell-and-martin-luther/
- McKee E. A., . (1994). Reforming Popular Piety in Sixteenth-Century Strasbourg. Princeton, N.J: Princeton Theological Seminary.