Martin Luther Biography, Part 3: "St. Anne help me! I will become a monk."

[Continued from Part 2.]

In 1505, at the age of 21, Martin Luther had earned his Master of Arts degree at Erfurt, and he planned to enter law school, according to the wishes of his father. However, Martin Luther had become extremely concerned about the condition of his soul: whether he would be accepted or condemned before God on the Day of Judgment. In Martin Luther's view, the path that offered the greatest possible assurance of salvation would be to enter the monastery, but he knew that such a course would enrage his father, who had pinned the Luther family's financial security and increased social standing on the idea that Martin would become a lawyer.

In July of 1505, Martin Luther was returning to school in Erfurt after a visit with his parents. A sudden thunderstorm arose, and lightening struck the ground a short distance away from Luther, knocking him down. Martin called out to his father's saint, the patroness of miners, who was supposed to be the mother of the Virgin Mary: "St. Anne help me! I will become a monk." That month, without his father's knowledge, and against his father's wishes, Martin Luther joined the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt.

[Sources:

Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978), 25.
Justo Gonzales, The Story of Christianity, Volume 2 (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1985), 16.

Timothy Lull, Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2005), 4.
Virgil Robinson, Luther the Leader (Ithaca, MI: A.B. Publishing, 1997), 17-20.]