Olympia Morata - Part 2

Among the strangers who had come to the University of Ferrara to study was a German, named Andrew Grunthler. Through Sinapius he had heard of Olympia. He learned to admire, then to love her. He sued for her hand, and she accepted and they were married in 1549. The prayers of the Little reformed church of Ferarra went up for this young couple, that God's blessing might rest upon them. She wrote a hymn on the occasion, which reads like an ode of Pindar, only it had a Christian instead of pagan theme running through it. It reads thus:

O Almighty God, King of kings, Creator of man and woman, Thou who gavest to the first man a companion that the race of mortals might not perish; Thou who hast willed that the soul brought out from humanity should be the mystic bride of Thine own Son, and that that divine Son should give his life for her, oh, shed peace and blessing upon these two now united before Thee.

But the dangers were gathering around the little reformed church of Ferarra. The pope would not allow a Protestant church in Italy. Grunthler, therefore, prepared to leave and return to Germany, to seek a place in some university. He left behind him his wife, as he feared the journey over the Alps in the cold winter would be too severe for her. He returned several months afterward, and then took her with him away from Ferarra. They started in June, (155o), accompanied by her brother, Emilio, aged eight years. They traveled through the Tyrol, passing the imperial army, and finally arrived safely at Augsburg. There the Fugger brothers were the rich merchants, who led the trade and art of the city. They had heard of Olympia's fame. They gave her a splendid welcome, and she and her husband had a charming sojourn there. They then went to Wurzberg, where her brother had an accident, in which he was saved from death by a seeming miracle. While praying with his companion, he fell suddenly from an elevated gallery headlong on the rocks below. They thought him killed, but, strange to say, he was not injured. She said she saw in it how God gives His angels charge over those who are His saints. Then, with her husband, she went (1551) to Schweinfurth, whose senate called him as a physician to the Spanish soldiers. So Olympia, the great classic scholar, was compelled to let her talents blush unseen in a poor country village. Her stay, however, was made pleasant by the education of her brother and by the kindness of the Protestants of the town, especially the pastor. Here she translated into Greek many of the Psalms and attended to the education of her brother.

But alas! the place that they expected to be the refuge for them, proved to be the place of greatest danger. The tide of war swept into this town. Margrave Albert of Brandenburg happened to chose Schweinfurth as the place in which to defend himself against the Emperor. The neighboring princes of the empire combined to destroy him. Thus the inhabitants of the town were compelled to suffer most terribly for a quarel to which they were strangers. The seige began April, 1553, and lasted 14 months. It was a terrible experience. The walls and houses were continually battered by the enemy's artillery. The citizens feared to go outside of their dwellings, yet met death sometimes in their houses. Bands of the enemy would at times override the town, and forcing themselves into the houses, would compel the owners to give them their money. These scenes became more terrible every day. Famine added its horrors to the war, and pestilence followed famine, until it cut off 1/2 of the population. In the midst of all these horrors her courage did not forsake her. She wrote: "Under the weight of so many evils we have found consolation only in prayer and meditation upon the holy Word." Her husband caught the fever, and, alas! all his medicines with which to allay it were exhausted. It seemed as if nothing short of a miracle could save him. Olympia went to One who was better than medicine - the Hearer and Answerer of prayer. Her prayers were answered, and, lo! her husband was saved! This gave her courage. The Lord, who had cared for, and spared, her husband, would certainly care for them in the seige.