While a decisive week promises to be for the Catholic Church with the opening of the conclave on Wednesday, a return to the legend of Papese Jeanne, a woman who, thanks to her education, manages to become a pope by pretending to be a man.
On May 7, the Portes de la Chapelle Sistine will close on the 133 cardinals gathered in a conclave. Their mission will be to elect the successor of Pope Francis who died in mid-April. A man, necessarily, since women are at this hour excluded from any ordination. And yet, a rumor of several centuries persists: what if one day, the pontifical tiara had styled the head of a woman? Here is the legend of the Popess Jeanne.
It is a story of love, scandal and misogyny, which has crossed the centuries and fed a good number of fantasies. We also find the trace in a plethora of ancient texts – only 80 for the medieval period. Its most complete version was written by Martin Le Polish around 1277, a monk, author of several major works from the 13th century.
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The legend of Popess Jeanne takes root around 850. From her childhood, we know almost nothing. Some say it born in Mainz, on the banks of the Rhine, others imagine it from the country of Wales. But all agree on one point: in love with a scholarly young man, she disguises herself as a man to be able to follow him to Athens.
Under the identity of “John the Englishman”, she accesses the investigation. Which allows her to go to Rome where she is quickly, thanks to her erudition, a …
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