Abbey-Roads2

Fresco  of Pope Joan on the vault of the Chapel of San Silvestro in the Basilica Monastery of the Quatro Santi Coronati.

A Medieval Urban Legend.

A friend sent me this photo of the mythical Pope Joan, from a Church in Rome.  It is said to commemorate the spot where legend has it, the female Popessa gave birth to a child in the middle of her procession from the Vatican to St. John Lateran.  Wikipedia has a fair history of the legend that feminists love to believe as fact.

“Testiculos habet et bene pendentes”

“And they dangle nicely”…oh please!

Supposedly, subsequent papal chairs had holes in them for the electing cardinals to discreetly look through to make sure the newly elected Pope was  indeed male, thus insuring there would never be another Pope Joan legend.  Another legend has it that someone would have to touch the junk to make sure.  (That’s kinda gay.) 

“There were associated legends as well. In the 1290s the Dominican Robert of Uzès recounted a vision in which he saw the seat “where, it is said, the Pope is proved to be a man”. By the 14th century, it was believed that two ancient marble seats, called the sedia stercoraria, which were used for enthroning new Popes in the Basilica of St. John Lateran had holes in the seats that were used for determining the gender of the new Pope. It was said that the Pope would have to sit on one of the seats naked, while a committee of cardinals peered through the hole from beneath, before declaring, “Testiculos habet et bene pendentes” — “He has testicles, and they dangle nicely.” Not until the late 15th century, however, was it said that this peculiar practice was instituted in response to the scandal of the 9th century female Pope.”  - Wikipedia

Maybe Don Marco would know more about all of this.  (I find it difficult to believe.)