Q. Before the election of Pope Leo, I saw a number of stories about a woman pope from the Middle Ages. Is that a real thing that happened?
A. There are a few stories that, depending on the time of year or events taking place, you can almost guarantee will be reported on by mainstream media or begin circulating across social media. When the world turned its attention to the election of a new pope, I knew it was only a matter of time before the “Pope Joan” stories would begin making the rounds.
While there are multiple versions, the basic legend (and it is a legend) of Pope Joan goes something like this: She was a young English girl who fell in love with a young man who entered a monastery. Unwilling to be parted from him, she pretended to be a man, became a monk, and due to her brilliance, eventually became a cardinal and was elected Pope John. But she never ended her romantic relationship.
During a papal procession, the legend continues, she mounted her horse and immediately went into labor, giving birth to a son, much to the surprise of the Romans. Stories vary with what happened next, some saying she was brutally murdered, some that she died in childbirth; others that she was deposed and allowed to live out her life.
The earliest written account of the story was by Jean de Mailly, a Dominican chronicler who lived sometime in the mid-thirteenth century. He placed Pope Joan after Victor III in 1087. The timing of Pope Joan’s reign was later moved earlier, to 855 by Martin of Troppau, who in his Chronicle of the Popes and Emperors (written sometime around 1270), includes Pope Joan and gives the most complete version of the story.
It is interesting to note that, following this, it was commonly accepted in some regions as fact that there was a Pope John who was actually a woman. The cathedral in Siena included Joan amongst the other portraits of popes within the church and lists of popes written by some chroniclers during the period included Joan.
As early as the 1400s, scholars were already discrediting the legend as purely fictitious. Although some Protestant writers tried to make use of the legend as an anti-papal fable during the Reformation, Protestant historians in the 17th and 18th centuries began writing against the idea that Pope Joan ever existed.
The reason we can be sure Pope Joan never existed is based on historical fact. Archeological and documentary evidence makes it clear that there was no interregnum between Pope Leo IV and Benedict III, where the most complete version of the story places her. There was a Pope John VII around the time the original chronicle placed her, but he definitely did not give birth to a son while on procession – or ever, obviously! Some historians argue that since Pope John VII was Greek, he was seen as effeminate by the Roman clergy and populace, due to a form of orientalism present in the minds of Romans at the time, which may have led over the centuries to him actually being a woman.
If it is clearly not a real story, why does it keep coming up? Pope Joan as a figure is used at various times to denounce the corrupt nature of the papacy, demonstrate why the Catholic Church hates women (disregarding the fact that the Church loudly and constantly hails Mary as the greatest person to ever live and the ideal Christian), or as a secular feminist icon. Basically, whatever anti-Catholic narrative someone needs, they can find in Pope Joan a convenient narrative device.
More interesting than if Pope Joan was real (which she wasn’t) is the conversation about why she ever emerged as a legendary figure. Legends are interesting not for what they say (although sometimes they are pretty cool), but for what they say about the people who wrote them and believed them.
Why would someone invent Pope Joan? Some historians argue it was a simple misapplication of an earlier (and also almost certainly untrue) story of a Patriarch of Constantinople who was found out to be a woman. Others point to the fact that there was a strange movement around the time Pope Joan was alleged to have lived regarding the Age of the Spirit, and the Spirit being a woman, and therefore women should supplant men as priests. Still others say it was meant as a cautionary tale against the de-masculinization of the clergy, which some felt was happening during the late 1200s.
We might never know, this side of heaven, where the legend came from, but what we do know is it is definitely a legend, and it will be repeated again next time a pope is being elected.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
