Wibrandis Rosenblatt (1504–1564) was the wife of three major religious reformers, who predeceased her:

Johannes Oecolampadius Johannes Oecolampadius (also ''Œcolampadius'', in German also Oekolampadius, Oekolampad; 1482 – 24 November 1531) was a German Protestant reformer in the Calvinist tradition from the Electoral Palatinate. He was the leader of the Protestant ...

(married, 1528–1531),

Wolfgang Capito Wolfgang Fabricius Capito (also Koepfel) ( – November 1541) was a German Protestant reformer in the Calvinist tradition. His life and revolutionary work Capito was born circa 1478 to a smith at Hagenau in Alsace. He attended the famous Lat ...

(married, 1532–1541), and Martin Bucer (married, 1542–1551).

Family life

Rosenblatt was born in 1504 in

Bad Säckingen Bad Säckingen ( High Alemannic: ''Bad Säckinge'') is a rural town in the administrative district of Waldshut in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is famous as the "Trumpeteer's City" because of the book ''Der Trompeter von Säckin ...

and raised in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. She first married a young scholar and

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

named Ludwig Keller (married, 1524-1526), with whom she had one daughter. Keller died in 1528, and she married Oecolampadius later that year. She had three children with Oecolampadius, two of whom died in childhood. After Oecolampadius died in 1531, she married his friend Capito (who was also newly widowed) and moved to

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. She had five children with Capito, but he and several of their children died in the plague of 1541. Rosenblatt's friend Elisabeth Bucer also died in the same plague, but before she died asked her widowed friend to marry her own husband. Rosenblatt married Bucer in 1542, and had two children with him (they did not survive to adulthood). She joined him in his exile to England in 1549. She was in all the mother of 11 children, and also cared for other children and relatives in her four husbands' households. After Bucer died she returned to Basel, where she died of

bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well a ...

in 1564.

References

* Sonja Domröse: ''Frauen der Reformationszeit. Gelehrt, mutig und glaubensfest.'' Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, . * Irina Bossart: ''Wibrandis Rosenblatt (1504–1564) – „euer Diener im Herrn“ oder: Das Wort gewinnt Gestalt im Tun.'' In: Adelheid M. von Hauff (Hrsg.): ''Frauen gestalten Diakonie.'' Band 1: ''Von der biblischen Zeit bis zum Pietismus'' ().

Kohlhammer Verlag W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart. History Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-law ...

, Stuttgart 2007, , S. 321–336. * Susanna Burghartz: ''Wibrandis Rosenblatt – Die Frau der Reformatoren.'' In: ''Theologische Zeitschrift.'' Bd. 60, Nr. 4, 2004, S. 337–349,
Digitalisat (PDF; 105,63 KB)
. * Roland H. Bainton: ''Frauen der Reformation. Von Katharina von Bora bis Anna Zwingli. 10 Porträts'' (= ''Gütersloher Taschenbücher.'' 1442). 2. Auflage. Gütersloher Verlags-Haus, Gütersloh 1996, , S. 84–102. * Ernst Staehelin: ''Frau Wibrandis. Eine Gestalt aus den Kämpfen der Reformationszeit.'' Gotthelf-Verlag, Bern u. a. 1934. *

External links

* * * Susanna Burghartz: ''Wibrandis Rosenblatt – Die Frau der Reformatoren. Zum Andenken an Katharina Preiswerk (1917-2003).'' ThZ 4/60 (2004), S. 337–349

* Helen Liebendörfer: ''Die Frau im Hintergrund.'' Historischer Roman. F. Reinhardt, Basel 2013, . 1504 births 1564 deaths People from Bad Säckingen People from Basel-Stadt People of the Protestant Reformation 16th-century deaths from plague (disease) 16th-century German women German evangelicals Swiss evangelicals {{Christian-bio-stub