Looking for Pope Joan

[deadparrot]

In a medieval mystery of the Catholic Church lies evidence of a woman pope, with clues buried in ancient parchment, artwork and writings, even in tarot cards and a bizarre chair once used in a Vatican ritual.

Was there a Pope Joan — a woman with nerve enough to disguise herself as a man and serve as pope for more than two years in the ninth century? It is one of the world's oldest mysteries. Her story first appeared in histories written by medieval monks, but today the Catholic Church dismisses it.

"Ninety percent of me thinks there was a Pope Joan," says Mary Malone, a former nun who wrote a history of women and Christianity.

Donna Cross, a novelist who spent seven years researching the time period, says the historical evidence is there. "I would say it's the weight of evidence — over 500 chronicle accounts of her existence."

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1453197&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[Big Kahuna]

1. Aradia ?

http://stregheria.com/Aradia.html

---
The year 1300 was declared a Jubilee Year by Boniface VIII. It was also the year that Dante had his "vision: of Inferno Panderers." A sect known as the Guglielmites believed that a certain woman named Guglielma of Milan was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit and wished to establish a church with a female pope and female cardinals. Millennialism has frequently provided a basis for social progress regarding women. Women have historically taken very active and creative roles in millennial groups, even in societies where their voices would normally have been repressed such as that of Guglielma of Milan.

Manfreda Visconti was elected by the Guglielmites to be their papess. She was burnt at the stake in 1300. The year 1300 was to usher in a new era of female popes with Manfreda officiating a mass at Ste. Maria Maggiore. Guglielma was in reality, Princess Blazena Vilemina, daughter of the King of Bohemia. She was born in 1210 and appeared in Milan around 1260 and reportedly died on August 24, 1281. She appeared in Milan dressed as a "common-woman." Because of her noble background, she attracted followers from both the Visconti family as well as the Torriani family, noble rivals of the time, and was seen as a "peacemaker" between the families. There is some conjecture that she might have been influenced by the sisters of the "Free Spirit", a very prominent heretical group of the time, that preached the teachings of Joachim.

[onehandle]

2. It wouldn't surprise me. History is a long, complicated process.

There's a book called "How the Irish Saved Civilization". It's about how monks in Ireland essentially saved the western history during the dark ages.

A very interesting read.

[Big Kahuna]

4. Skellig - By Loreeena McKennit

O light the candle, John
The daylight has almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass

Sit here by my side
For the night is very long
There's something I must tell
Before I pass along

I joined the brotherhood
My books were all to me
I scribed the words of God
And much of history

Many a year was I
Perched out upon the sea
The waves would wash my tears,
The wind, my memory

I'd hear the ocean breathe
Exhale upon the shore
I knew the tempest's blood
Its wrath I would endure

And so the years went by
Within my rocky cell
With only a mouse or bird
My friend; I loved them well

And so it came to pass
I'd come here to Romani
And many a year it took
Till I arrived here with thee

On dusty roads I walked
And over mountains high
Through rivers running deep
Beneath the endless sky

Beneath these jasmine flowers
Amidst these cypress trees
I give you now my books
And all their mysteries

Now take the hourglass
And turn it on its head
For when the sands are still
'Tis then you'll find me dead

O light the candle, John
The daylight is almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass

[beam me up scottie]

3. Very interesting story.

Travel north to Siena to the Duomo, where inside the cathedral is a gallery of terra-cotta busts depicting 170 popes, in no particular order. In the 17th century, Cardinal Baronuis, the Vatican librarian, wrote that one of the faces was a female — Joan the Female Pope.

Baronius also wrote that the pope at the time decreed that the statue be destroyed, but some say the local archbishop didn't want a good to statue go to waste.

"The statue was transformed," believes Cross. "I mean, literally, it was scraped off, her name and written on top of Pope Zachary."

****************

Medieval manuscripts tell a similar tale: Two-and-a-half years into her reign, Pope Joan was in the midst of a papal procession, a three-mile trip to the Church of the Lateran in Rome, when suddenly at a crossroads, she felt sharp pains in her stomach.

She was having contractions, the stories say. The unthinkable happened — the pope was having a baby.

"And then, shock and horror," says Malone. "And then the story gets very confused, because some of the records say she was killed and her child was killed right on the spot. Other records say she was sent to a convent and that her son grew up and later became bishop of Ostia."

Stories vary — some say the crowd stoned her to death, others say she was dragged from the tail of a horse — but in most accounts, Pope Joan perished that day.

I wonder if Mary Malone chose to be an ex-nun, or if her choice of research subjects did her in.