Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in Germany to Hans and Margarette Luder. Did you catch the fun fact yet? Martin Luder changed his name. Many believe choose to change his name to something that sounded more academic. While his father was a successful miner and ore smelter his upbringings were quite humble. Luther would begin his academic adventure on the route to becoming a lawyer but would later forego that route to begin a spiritual journey he could have never planned for.
The Reformation could have ended before it ever started. At the age of 19 Luther almost died. He was on his way home from school, when a dagger pierced his leg, cutting an artery. A classmate and friend of Luther is credited with saving his life by quickly fetching a doctor. Lying at the edge of the road till the doctor came, he cried to the mother of Jesus, “O, Mary, help!” His Wittenberg friends later criticized him for appealing to Mary instead of Jesus.
By the time Luther’s life was over he had written over 60, 000 pages. His great desire was not to be remembered, in fact, it is reported that he once hoped that “all of my books would be gone and only Holy Scripture remain.”
