How Luther comforted his wife on September 20, 1542

In 1542 Luther’s 14 year old daughter Magdalena lay gravely ill with the plague.  “Luther knelt beside her bed and begged God to release her from the pain.  When she died and the carpenters were nailing down the lid of her coffin, Luther screamed out, ‘Hammer away!  On doomsday she’ll rise again.’”  (George, Theology of the Reformers, 105).”

Luther composed the epitaph for Magdalena to console his wife.

I, Lena, Luther’s beloved child

Sleep gently here with all the saints

And lie at peace and rest

Now I am God’s own guest.

I was a child of death, it is true,

My mother bore me out of mortal seed,

Now I live and am rich in God.

For this I thank Christ’s death and blood.

Source: Heiko Oberman’s, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, page 312.