Sandra
Lara
wrote:
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Hi, guys —
I remember hearing that Martin Luther on
his death bed requested a Catholic priest
to give him his Last Rites and the holy oils.
- Is there any truth to this?
Sandra
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Did
Martin Luther on his death bed request that
a Catholic priest give him his Last Rites? }
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Mike
replied:
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Hi, Sandra —
After reading some comments from
a Catholic Answers forum posting
on this topic, a good point, made by NeelyAnn was:
I read somewhere (though I don't
know if the source was accurate)
that he asked for Last Rites.
but [...] if he was excommunicated
at the time, he wouldn't have
been able to receive the sacraments.
If this is true though, it's pretty
funny because Lutherans and other
Protestants only have two sacraments
and Last Rites is not one of them. |
Nevertheless, any Protestant
who is dying can ask for the
sacraments, but they have to
believe in what the Church
believes about them.
Here is a
piece on Luther from New Advent
and below is the last paragraph of
the article:
His last act was, as he predicted
and prayed for, an attack on the
papacy.
Summoned to Eisleben,
his native place, a short time
after, to act as an arbiter in
a contention between the brothers
Albrecht and Gebhard von Mansfeld,
death came with unexpected speed
but not suddenly, and he departed
this life about three o'clock
in the morning, February, 18,
1546, in the presence of a number
of friends.
The body was
taken to Wittenberg for interment,
and was buried on the February 22, in the castle church,
where it now lies with that of
Melancthon. |
Hope this helps,
Mike
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Richard
replied:
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Dear Sandra,
Searching on the net, I have found
some accounts of Luther's life and
death by supporters and critics who
lived in his era, but I have not
found any evidence for the story
about a deathbed repentance by Luther.
For that reason, in my opinion, I
suspect the account is not reliable.
We are not historians, so this question
is outside our scope of activity
at AskACatholic.com;
we deal with doctrinal questions
about the Catholic Faith.
Biographical questions about individual
historical personages are interesting,
but they're part of the domain of
history, not theology. In a sense,
this issue about Luther doesn't affect
our purpose: whether Luther repented
or not, doesn't have any effect on
Catholic doctrine, and it doesn't
make a difference to help anybody
understand the Catholic faith better.
If you want to research the question
further, I'm sure you can find biographical
books about Luther through any public
or university library near you.
God bless you as you enter into the
holy season of Lent!
— Richard Chonak, for AskACatholic.com
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