(After reading this play, you may want to watch the video of it which can be found in this website immediately after this text.  A video brings the play alive.  It is easily downloaded in seconds.)

(Katie and Martin come down the center aisle to the chancel.  Martin is a few steps behind Katherine and is pleading with her as they walk.  In the chancel area are a kitchen table, two chairs, coffee cups and a stack of old books on the table.  Off to the side is a large, old suitcase in which to pack clothing.  Nearby are men's clothing, including a favorite old sweater that is ready to be packed.)

Martin             
Katie, Katie.  Don't be so upset.  I have to go to Mansfield.  The governors are arguing with each other again, and I am needed to help make the peace.  (while walking down the aisle)  

Katie              
My dear Martin, why do you always have to go to this conference and to that meeting?  It's been the same our whole married life.  In 22 years of marriage, nothing has changed.  You've been working too hard, and you haven't been feeling well have you?  (Martin shrugs, looking caught!)  And now you insist on going again.  

Martin             
I'll be fine.... and besides, I'll know that you are here, at home taking care of things.  ...  (moving to hold her)..Katie, you're my morning star.  

Katie              
(Swiftly brushing his hand off her shoulder) Don't morning star me!  

Martin             
Katie, you are my morning star.  You are the one who shines through our darkest nights together.  

Katie              
(Softens)  O Martin.  

Martin             
I don't know what I would have done without you.... the night baby Elizabeth died.... the night our little Lena died.... the nights I was so sick.  

Katie             
And almost died.  Three times, you were so sick I thought I had lost you.

Martin             
And every time, you were my light of hope that morning would come... and it always did.  

Katie             
O Martin... must you go?  You're 64 years old.  You're so tired.  Let one of the younger men handle it.  

Martin             
I would like to, but they need me.  I have to go Katie.  Would you please help me pack?  

Katie              
(Giving in, somewhat disgustedly)  Oh, of course.

Martin            
I have to get some of these books ready to take along.  My Bible here.  (Pause.  Martin moves to the table and is seated where he picks up the books and begins to look at them.  Katie moves to the shirts and sweaters to begin to pack them.  She fondly holds an old sweater of Martin's to her chest.)

Katie              
Did you want to take this sweater?  

Martin             
Of course.  My favorite one,  the one that you made me.  Would you pack it?  

Katie               
What memories.... Martin, do you remember that first letter I wrote to you?  

Martin             
Of course, let me see (absent mindedly.)  Ah, yes, you were living in the convent with the other nuns and you wanted me to help you escape.

Katie              
I didn't know where to turn for help.  The convent was terrible.  My father took me there when I was five years old... after my mother died.  How I missed my home, my brothers, my sisters.  I was so unhappy for 20 years.  

Martin             
You must have been miserable, living without family, in that convent for twenty years,  but why did you write to me, of all people?  

Katie               
You!  (moves to table - where both sit)  You were our symbol of freedom.  You called all believers to be free in Christ and no longer slaves to the tyranny of the church and convent.  

Martin             
How I detested that church... and... and... how I loved plotting your escape.  Remember the way I got old Leonard Koppe to come and rescue you in his merchant wagon.  I said:  "Leonard, why don't you go on Easter Eve.  The convent will be so quiet.  No one will be suspicious."  I can still feel it in my bones as if it were last night (laughing uproariously.)

Katie              
The nuns and I were hiding in the room upstairs.  It was quiet and dark.  And just before  10 o'clock, we crawled out the window and hid.  We were afraid the wagon wouldn't come.  Afraid we would be discovered and punished by the Mother Superior again.  

Martin             
And then you crept quietly from behind the bushes and you climbed up into the wagon.  You squeezed in between the barrels of pickled herring and Leonard covered the wagon with the canvas.  He drove as quietly as possible, not to waken the Mother Superior., and outside the convent, he galloped those horses as fast as he could over cobbled stone.  Those barrels of herring were splattering and spilling all over you.  And when you arrived the next morning, did you smell like pickled fish!  (both laughing uproariously as the story is told)  

Katie               
That was embarrassing!  We smelled!  My hair was cropped so short.  We wore those dowdy clothes.  The people from Wittenberg looked us over and knew that we were runaway nuns. I was so embarrassed at the way we looked.  O what a morning.... At least I had a job as a maid, thanks to you.

Martin             
But you didn't stay there very long as I recall... Eventually.... you proposed marriage to me.  

Katie               
I proposed to you?

Martin             
Come on Katie, don't pretend otherwise.  We both know that you took the initiative and told my good friend that you wanted to marry me.  

Katie               
Ooooooohhh.  Amsdorf.  You're talking about Amsdorf.  

Martin             
Yes, I was trying to set you up with Pastor Glatz.   

Katie               
Glatz!!!  (makes gesture that Pastor Glatz is fat. )  He was such a bore.  I couldn't bear the thought of spending a lifetime with that tiresome man, so I went to Amsdorf and said:  "I don't want to marry Pastor Glatz.  I would rather marry a man of courage... a man of strong character... like Dr. Martin Luther."  But he wasn't listening to me.  He didn't understand.  And so I shouted:  "I refuse to marry Pastor Glatz!" and stormed out and slammed the door.  

Martin            
Was he ever shocked!  When I came home that night, he was waiting at the door and said, "Katherine von Bora is a proud women... a stubborn woman... a haughty woman (at this moment, Katie is walking across the front of the stage with a haughty gait) and she refuses to marry Pastor Glatz.  Instead, Dr. Luther, she would rather marry you!   .....Whoooofff.  Was I ever shocked!

Katie               
Well, I was never proud, haughty or stubborn.  (Luther is laughing with glee at her remarks.)  I was strong willed perhaps and that is exactly what you needed.  

Martin             
The kind of woman I wanted.  A strong, independent, German frau.  Spirited.  Red hair.  Pigtails.  

Katie               
I was a young 26 years old and you were an older 42.  Two weeks passed and then you came to me and said:  (imitating masculine demeanor)  "Katherine von Bora, God has put it in my heart to marry you as an example for the other priests.  (Luther shrugs defenselessly)  As an example!  You said nothing about wanting me for your wife.  You said nothing about love.  

Martin            
Katie, that night, I didn't know about love, affection and tenderness.  That night, I didn't know about women.  

Katie               
That's the truth! You didn’t know about women and our feelings about all those lovely wedding gifts.  I had never seen so many beautiful things in my whole life.  You just gave them away…to the poor and needy.  

Martin             
So.  

Katie               
And that Venetian glass.  That beautiful Venetian glass that we received from the Governor.  You know, the one that sat on the mantle above the fireplace (Luther, finally nodding yes), you gave it to some poor student to pay his rent.

Martin             
Of course.  

Katie               
And when I complained, you said:  (Imitating Luther's voice)  "Katie, God will provide."   .... Pwwwwtttt!!!  (turns, walks away to continue packing)  

Martin            
Katie, God did provide for us in all circumstances.  Think of it:  when we got married, the governor gave us the 40 room cloister I was living in to be our home.  Potentially, it was a 40 room home!  

Katie               
Forty rooms full of centuries of soot that I had to clean up every day!  

Martin             
And then God provided us with those 12 boarding students, who came to live with us so we could make a little extra money.  

Katie               
Twelve hungry, messy, smelly, dirty men for me to take care of.  

Martin             
And then God provided us with our five children, our seven nieces and nephews we took care of, and then several orphans who came to live at our house.  

Katie               
Let's see, with our five, the seven nieces and nephews, the 12 boarding students... Aunt Lena, Wolf the gardener, and you always had some visiting dignitaries.... there must have been 35 people for me to take care of. (Luther stands behind Katie, adding all these numbers up such as 12, 24, 25, 26. etc.)

Martin            
And don't forget the Agricolas... the two of them... plus their nine children who came to live with us.  ....  It was absolutely wonderful.  First God provided us with a great big home... and then God provided us with children and nieces and nephews and all those wonderful people to take care of. and then God provided me you... to do all the work.  

Katie               
I would have been better off in a convent.  (walking to other side of stage)  

Martin             
Katie, God didn't want you off in some convent.  He wanted you to be here, at home and in the neighborhood, taking care of all of these people, the children, the orphans, the students, doing our daily work.  That's what holiness is.  Holiness isn't being cloistered off in some convent, sewing beads on a chasuble.  That isn't holiness. Holiness is doing the stuff that God wants you to do.  

Katie               
I suppose you're right.  (Luther moves to the table and begins to look at his books)  And God provided us the big vegetable garden... and all the farm animals…and all of them needed to be taken care of... but... but... I wouldn't have had to work so hard if you would have been paid for all those books you wrote.  You never made a dime from your writings.  But the publishers, they made plenty of money.  

Martin             
(Holding some old books) You still resent it that I didn't make a dime off of these books I wrote.  You still resent that; it still sticks in your craw.

Katie               
See these callused hands of mine?  I worked them to the bone.  A little more money would have helped.   

Martin             
Katie, God didn't want us to be rich in the things of this world.  God wanted us to be rich in love, rich in affection.  And besides, God has provided for us in all circumstances of our lives together, in the good times and the bad.  

Katie               
Yes, that's certainly true.  Like when the plague struck Wittenberg.  So many people were sick and dying.  The others fled in fear.  But we stayed to help.  Somehow, miraculously, God provided.  God protected us during the worst of the plague.  

Martin             
But God didn't protect us entirely.  Remember... the night that baby Elizabeth died.  The night that little Lena died.  (Martin and Katie are reaching across the table and comforting each other during these painful memories or standing and touching each other affectionately.)  

Katie               
Precious Lena.  She was only 12 years old.  It was the worst night of our lives.  Remember, she called for Hans to come to her.  

Martin             
How she loved her brother Hans.  When we saw the two of them together that night and into the morning, I thought our hearts would break into a thousand pieces. It was the worst night of our lives together.  

Katie              
It was so awful for all of us.  … Martin, how can it be that we can be so confident of our place with God in heaven, and still grieve so deeply the death of our daughters?  It is so hard.

Martin             
Life is hard, Katie.  The cross is hard.  God carrying the cross was hard.  But God protected us.  He protected us from giving up, from quitting.  He protected us from despair. ...  And God provided for us. God provided us with children. He provided us these Gospel promises (taking hold of the German Bible) that our children would live forever with Christ.  And God provided you... you, my morning star.  

Katie               
O Martin, my beloved husband.  I need you here, don't go.  

Martin            
I want to stay, but I must go.  Please... we got talking so much that we stopped packing (returns to packing). I need to take these books along... the German Bible for my devotional reading... Aesop's Fables for  my light reading.  

Katie              
Aesop's Fables and the Bible.  You translated them into our German language.  If we didn't have these books in our own language, we wouldn't be able to read these delightful stories, or God's holy words for ourselves... in our own German tongue.  Martin, what a blessing you have been to the whole world.

Martin            
Remember, we are all merely beggars before God.  And.... be careful lest you become too proud.  

Katie               
You are always teasing me about being proud.  

Martin            
Katie, I must go.  (embraces her)  Katie, my rib.  I am part of you and you are part of me..  We are part of each other.  I must be going.  I will send Hans and Martin Junior to come by and pick up the luggage.  

Katie               
Do you promise you will take care of yourself?  

Martin             
Yes.  

Katie              
And write?

Martin             
I'll write.  

Katie               
I love you my dear Martin.  God speed.  

Martin            
And I love you.  God bless you, until we meet again, God willing.  

 (Martin leaves.  Katie continues to pack, perhaps humming the hymn, "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come."  She then turns and faces the congregation as she affectionately holds Martin's old favorite sweater.)

Katie               
Martin did write.  In two weeks, I received five letters.  He was very busy.  He installed two young pastors; and he preached four sermons; he gave communion, and he made the peace between the two quarreling governors.  But he still was not feeling well.  We were expecting him home any day.  Then one morning when we were sitting at breakfast, there was a knock at the door.  It was three of his best friends.  I looked into Philip Melanchthon's eyes, and I knew.  I knew that Martin had died.  He died in the town of Eisleben, the very city in which he had been born and baptized.  ...  Our life together was now over.  

There are so many things I loved and admired about that man.  He had such joy in knowing Christ.... He was confident in preaching God's word of grace.... the message that we are saved, not because we are good, but because God is good.  I loved his courage:  he stood up to princes and popes.

And how I miss his tender love for me... and for the children.  I remember one evening, just before Christmas.  He was in his study, sitting before the fire, in our rocking chair, rocking little Margaret.  As he rocked, he sang a song that he had written.  It was this one.

(Sings or reads from a book of hymns)
"From heaven above to earth I come.  To bring good news to every home.  Glad tidings of great joy I bring, whereof I now will gladly sing."  ...  My favorite stanza is this one:  "Ah, dearest Jesus, holy child; make thee a bed, soft undefiled, Within my heart, that it may be, a quiet chamber, kept for thee."  ...  How I  loved that last line:  My heart... a quiet chamber... kept for the Lord Jesus Christ....  

(A pause.  Katie embraces the old sweater warmly to her face and looks up)  God speed, my dear Martin....(Katie exits)