La Papessa

"La Popessa", also written as "La Papessa", is a term used in tarot to refer to The Papess or The High Priestess playing card. It is also a term used informally by some Roman Catholics to refer to a woman who is perceived as exercising undue influence on a pope to the extent that she is seen as "La Papessa" or a "she pope"-- most recently Sister Pascalina who worked for Pope Pius XII. It was also used to refer to Pope Joan, the mythical woman pope who supposedly reigned as pope from 855 to 858.

In Tarot

The "La Papessa" or "Papess" card first appeared in Tarot cards in mediæval times. Some of the cards directly linked the woman on the cards to the papacy by showing the woman wearing a "trigregnum" or Papal Tiara. There are also variants which, along with the triregnum, also show a key reminiscent of the keys to the kingdom that are a traditional symbol of the papacy. Various modern tarot decks such as Golden Tarot continue this tradition.."Fact|date=August 2007

However not all cards however clearly linked the card with the papacy. Other variants on the card linked the woman to the Virgin Mary, Isis and even the legendary Pope Joan. Post-reformation cards in particular used images of Pope Joan with a child, linking in to the mythology of how Joan, disguised as a man, was elected to the papacy and was only supposedly discovered to be a woman when she gave birth.."Fact|date=August 2007

In Catholicism

While many women were accused of exercising "undue influence" on popes, the term "La Popessa" is particularly used to refer to two.

Pope Joan

According to mediæval legend, in the 9th century (855-858) an English woman disguised herself as a man to be allowed to enter Holy Orders. It was claimed that she rose to prominence with her Order before being elected pope. Her deception was only unearthed when she collapsed in childbirth during a papal procession through Rome. According to one version, the angry crowd then stoned to death Pope Joan and her newborn child. All subsequent popes were then supposedly subjected to an examination whereby, having sat on a dung chair containing a hole called "sedia stercoraria", a cardinal had to reach up and establish that the new pope had testicles, before solemnly announcing "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" — "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."Fact|date=August 2007While the story of Pope Joan is attested to by some respected mediæval historians Fact|date=April 2008 who repeated as fact traditional accounts of her supposed reign, it has been generally dismissed by historians since the 17th century as a fabrication.

Pasqualina Lehnert

While the evidence as to the existence of the supposed "Pope Joan" may be scant, Sr. Pasqualina Lehnert was the real-life housekeeper of Eugenio Pacelli, a Vatican diplomat who in 1939 became Pope Pius XII.

The precise nature of the relationship between Pacelli and Lehnert remained a source of controversy throughout their lifetimes. ."Fact|date=August 2007The Bavarian-born nun first worked for Pacelli when he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to the court of King Ludwig III of Bavaria. In 1918 rumours spread through the Vatican that Pacelli and Lehnert were lovers.."Fact|date=August 2007Pacelli demanded and was granted a full investigation of what he called a "horrible calumny". Lehnert remained as his housekeeper, a post she would continue to fill until his death in 1958.

Lehnert became highly controversial in the 1950s when Pope Pius XII's health began to deteriorate. Her enemies included his family (his sister labelled her "scaltrissima" — extremely cunning — while his nephew begged him to dismiss her) and senior figures in the Curia. Lehnert assumed the role of gatekeeper to the Pope, deciding who could meet him and who would not be allowed to meet him, what Vatican documents could be submitted to him and what ones couldn't. Critics accused her of using her position to poison his mind against some senior figures, notably Giovanni Montini, who was inexplicably denied the cardinalate when appointed Archbishop of Milan. Her most outspoken critics within the Vatican labelled her "La Papessa" or the "She Pope"" and sought, without success, to have her dismissed from the Papal Household.."Fact|date=August 2007

Manfreda

La Papessa in the Visconti-Sforza tarot has been identified as a depiction of Sister Manfreda, an Umiliata nun and a relative of the Visconti family who was elected Pope by the heretical Guglielmite sect of Lombard. In The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo, Gertrude Moakley writes:

Their leader, Guglielma of Bohemia, had died in Milan in 1281. The most enthusiastic of her followers believed that she was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, sent to inaugurate the new age of the Spirit prophesied by Joachim of Flora. They believed that Guglielma would return to earth on the Feast of Pentecost in the year 1300, and that the male dominated Papacy would then pass away, yielding to a line of female Popes. In preparation for this event they elected Sister Manfreda the first of the Popesses, and several wealthy families of Lombardy provided at great cost the sacred vessels they expected her to use when she said Mass in Rome at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Naturally, the Inquisition exterminated this new sect, and the "Popess" was burned at the stake in the autumn of 1300. Later the Inquisition proceeded against Matteo Visconti, the first Duke of Milan, for his very slight connections with the sect.

This identification has been supported by other tarot historians, such as Michael Dummett in his book The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards.

ee also

*Olympia Maidalchini