Katharina von Bora (l. 1499-1552) was a former nun who married Martin Luther (l. 1483-1546) in 1525. She, along with some fellow nuns, escaped their convent with Luther’s help in 1523 in response to his reform movement. Katharina is recognized as the stabilizing force in Luther’s life, enabling his later works.
Katharina Zell (1497-1562) was a reformer, theologian, and prolific writer in Strasbourg who helped establish the basic tenets of the Protestant Reformation without advancing sectarian interpretations. She is regarded as the first ecumenical reformer as she accepted and ministered to people of different sects without judgment.
Marie Dentière (l. c. 1495-1561) was a French theologian, writer, and street preacher who advanced the cause of the Protestant Reformation in Geneva, Switzerland. Her written works were controversial primarily because she was a woman and were suppressed during her life and largely ignored until the 19th century.
Olympia Fulvia Morata was a 1500s Italian scholar, poet, and writer who sought to advance the Protestant Reformation in Italy.
Egeria (also known as Etheria, l. c. 380s) was a Christian traveler and writer known only from her work Itinerarium. Based on the text, she was a woman of the upper class who went on pilgrimage to significant sites mentioned in the Bible. She traveled through the regions of modern-day Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and back to the region of Anatolia.
Katharina von Zimmern (l. 1478-1547) was the abbess of the Fraumünster Abbey in Zürich for 30 years and the last before the monasteries were dissolved.
Northumbrian princess Hilda of Whitby (also known as Saint Hilda of Whitby, l. 614-680 CE) was the founder and abbess of the monastery at Whitby, Kingdom of Northumbria, Britain.
Anna Adischwyler (also known as Anna Bullinger, l. c. 1504-1564) was the wife of the reformer Heinrich Bullinger who succeeded Zwingli as head of the Reformed Church in Zürich after the latter’s death in 1531.
Argula von Grumbach was a Bavarian theologian, writer, and reformer, who became a controversial figure after her 1523 letter To the University of Ingolstadt protesting the arrest of a young scholar for teaching Lutheran precepts.
The Oracle of Nuska was an unnamed enslaved girl who became embroiled in a plot to overthrow Esarhaddon circa 671 BCE.