Katharina Schütz Zell

vers 1497-1562 16th century

Consoling by letter those one cannot reach.

Who was Katharina Schütz Zell?

The daughter of a Strasbourg craftsman, in 1523 she married one of the first married priests of the city and became, with no title and no office, the effective pastor of her parish: she lodged refugees, visited the plague-stricken, published a hymn book for working people, and defended in print her right to write. In 1524, when a hundred and fifty inhabitants of Kentzingen fled to her city, she took in eighty of them on the first night and wrote a letter to the women who had stayed behind.

In their own words

To the suffering believing women of the community of Kentzingen, my fellow sisters in Christ Jesus, into their own hands.

The address of her letter to the women of Kentzingen, 1524, translated from the German by the Manna team

I too pray to God day and night with all of you.

To the Suffering Women of the Community of Kentzingen, 1524, translated from the German by the Manna team

Are [these words of Christ] not comforting words, golden words?

To the Suffering Women of the Community of Kentzingen, 1524, translated from the German by the Manna team