Bethlen Kata (1700–1759)

Countess Kata Bethlen belonged to a prominent noble Hungarian family. She was a niece of Count Miklos Bethlen, a statesman and chancellor of Transylvania. She was a devout Protestant in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, and at age 17, was compelled by her family to marry a Catholic. The union was unhappy and her husband's family denied her access to her children. Following the death of her first husband in 1719, she remarried to another chancellor of Hungary, Mihály Teleki. This marriage was happier, but Teleki and their children died early. She had poor health throughout her life and studied medical books, medicinal plants, and old home recipes to become a healer.
She administered her husband's large estates and was active in fostering education in Transylvania. As a patron of Peter Bod, a Protestant scholar and publisher, she supported printing and scholastic reform. The library Bod assembled for her was one of the most important of that era. She was the first known woman to publish a memoir in Hungarian. Her writings included A Short Description of the Life of Countess Kata Bethlen Written by Herself in the 1740s; Memoirs of her Exile (1733); and her letters.