John Calvin's Wife

I am in Maine with Tim, serving at a youth camp this week.  I wasn't planning on blogging while here, but since there is internet access, and since I came across this post from another blog I read, I thought I would share it with you.  Read and give thanks to God for godly women as this.

Idelette: John Calvin's Wife
by Janis Shank

I love biographies! There is something powerful about reading the entirety of a person’s life journey that inspires faith toward God while I am still living mine. Most recently, I have been deeply affected by the life of John Calvin, who was born 500 years ago July 10. Many worldwide tributes devoted to his remembrance and the impact he made on church history are occurring this year. John Piper explains how we honor God through appreciating Calvin in particular:

"I am eager for people to know Calvin...because he took the Bible so seriously, and because what he saw on every page was the majesty of God and the glory of Christ. Calvin continues to inspire me because of his relentless focus on the greatness of God....

In the end, Calvin’s manifold ways of inspiring us have the effect they do century after century because he saw the gospel so clearly and made Christ so central....

If Jesus Christ, in all his majesty and excellence, is kept in clear view, the church will be kept from many errors. Therefore, Calvin continues to inspire and serve the church five hundred years after his birth.... " (taken from Desiring God blog).

We thought we would honor John Calvin indirectly by taking a peek at his dear wife, Idelette. She, like us, was married to a pastor, called to be a helper to a man devoted to the service of God and His people. What can we learn from this “older woman” of the faith?

Idelette lived from 1510 to 1549. We are introduced to her when she and her first husband converted to the Reformed faith from being Anabaptist, and along with their two children joined John Calvin’s church in Strasbourg, Germany. In the spring of 1540 Idelette’s husband died of the plague. Surprisingly, by August 6 of the same year, she married John Calvin, the pastor who conducted her husband’s funeral. Calvin’s ideal in a wife is revealed in his words to a friend: “But always keep in mind what I seek to find in her; for I am none of those insane lovers who embrace also the vices of those with whom they are in love, where they are smitten at first sight with a fine figure. This only is the beauty which allures me, if she is chaste, if not too fussy or fastidious, if economical, if patient, if there is hope that she will be interested about my health.” John found this ideal in Idelette as their brief and devoted union proved.

After six months of marriage, John and Idelette moved to Geneva, Switzerland where her husband assumed his new duties serving the Savior whom he so deeply loved. They kept a lively home, offering hospitality to many and it was said of Idelette, “Your hospitality in the name of Christ is not unknown to anybody in Europe.” She certainly assisted her husband’s ministry by keeping an open heart and an open home, often helping the poor and devoting herself to deeds of charity.

During the next few years Idelette had two miscarriages and gave birth to precious son, Jaques, who lived only two weeks. Deeply weakened and ill from his birth, she took comfort in God and in the words of her husband, “The Lord has certainly inflicted a severe and bitter wound in the death of our infant son. But He is Himself a father, and knows what is good for his children.” 

Their marriage didn’t last long by today’s standards, and in 1549, after only nine years, Idelette finally succumbed to the illness that plagued her most of her life. John was at her bedside when she died and heard her triumphantly exclaim, "O glorious resurrection! O God of Abraham and of all our fathers, the believers of all the ages have trusted on Thee and none of them have hoped in vain. And now I fix my hope on Thee." She certainly was a true companion to her husband and shared his deep conviction in the sovereign love and grace of God. Her very last words proclaim God’s greatness and her trust in Him!

John Calvin’s grief was profound, and his words reveal the depth of his love for his wife, “I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life, who, if our lot had been harsher, would have been not only the willing sharer of exile and poverty, but even of death. While she lived she was the faithful helper of my ministry. From her I never experienced the slightest hindrance.”

What can we learn from Idelette’s brief journey while we are still living ours? Here are a few take-a-ways for our encouragement.

1. She loved the Savior and served Him by loving her husband, children and God’s people entrusted to their care, often through hospitality and deeds of love. She devoted herself to the advancement of the gospel in her lifetime. We have the same calling and privilege.

2. She endured loss and physical suffering by trusting in the sovereignty of God. Though we live in an age of modern medicine and many modern conveniences, we too suffer in various ways and can find our comfort in the same Sovereign Love.

3. She was a “faithful helper” of her husband’s ministry and “the best companion” of his life. There is something so inspiring about this simple yet profound commendation by her husband. By God’s grace, I can do this day by day; faithfully helping and seeking to be my husband’s best companion. 

4. She maintained a robust hope in God, even at her death. By God’s grace, may we be ever growing stronger in this hope, now in life and all the way to our dying breath.

As you enter a new week, I pray you are inspired and encouraged by this ancient pastor’s wife to trust and serve our Savior. May God give us grace to live in such a gospel advancing way as to leave a legacy for those who will follow after us, just like our friend Idelette.