Clerical marriage Orthodox Communion (Constantinople, Alexandria Egypt, Antioch Syria, and Jerusalem). As stated above, the majority of Roman Church Priests at that time were married. Therefore, when some churches that followed western rites and traditions were brought back into communion with the Orthodox Churches beginning in the 20th century, their right to have married clergy, provided they were married before ordination, was restored. The practice of clerical marriage was initiated in the West by the followers of Martin Luther, who himself, a former priest and monk, married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, in 1525. It has not been introduced in the
Katharina von Bora and wife Margarethe, Truchsessin von Wetzhausen (1490–1527)) but died in Mühlhausen in 1570 at the age of thirty-six. Her descendants have continued to modern times, including German President Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934) and the Counts zu Eulenburg and Princes zu Eulenburg und Hertefeld. She is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran Churches in the United States on December 20. In addition to a statue in Wittenberg and several biographies, an opera of her life now keeps her memory alive. Katharina von Bora Katharina von Bora (; January 29, 1499 – December 20, 1552), after her wedding Katharina