JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Pope Joan giving birth during a procession; the female pope surrounded by cardinals at right, the newborn child on the ground; at left the procession and a fool standing behind a column mocking the scene; illustration to an unidentified publication. Strasbourg, 1539. From Wikimedia Commons.

The story of Pope Joan, the woman who disguised herself as a man and became pope in the 9th century, has long been dismissed by the Church as a legend and anti-Catholic fabrication. This is the Church which recently declared that anyone who attempts to ordain a woman will be excommunicated. That venerable institution also said that allowing women to become priests would be as sinful as child abuse—an unfortunate comparison, given their well-publicized problems.

Tarot card: La Papesse

The Pope Joan story just refuses to die: there’s a new German movie about her. Fake or fact, she is a fascinating subject.

‘”The She-Pope’s story is recorded by some 500 chroniclers of the papacy and matters Catholic, writing from early medieval times until the end of the seventeenth century,” explains Stanford in his book The She-Pope, which sets out to uncover the truth behind the myth. Stanford’s curiosity had first been piqued when, gazing at the view of a modest square in Rome, he noticed a small shrine at the foot of a road leading to the church of Saint John Lateran. It was decorated with what he thought was a faded fresco of the Madonna and Child. On further investigation, though, he discovered that the fresco marked the spot where the legendary Pope Joan had given birth and been killed by the outraged populace and buried by the roadside. So it could well be a representation not of the blessed Virgin but of Joan with her baby. And, according to the English historian Georgina Masson, that explains why papal cavalcades will no longer pass by the shrine, taking a detour to the church rather than being tainted by the shameful association.’ Read The Great Pretender by Sally Feldman in Eurozine.