La Papessa

For the Tarot card, see The High Priestess.

La Papessa, is an Italian 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, and of Olimpia Maidalchini the sister-in-law and alleged mistress of Pope Innocent X.

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

Main article: 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 "Duos habet et bene pendentes" – "He has two, and they dangle nicely." While the story of Pope Joan is attested to by some respected mediæval historians 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. The 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. Pacelli 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 (along with other nuns who assisted her) 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, most notably Giovanni Montini, whom Pius made Archbishop of Milan in 1952/3, thus removing him from influential Vatican circles. At that time, Montini declined the cardinalate. Her most outspoken critics within the Vatican labelled her La Papessa or the "She Pope"", also calling her "Virgo Potens", the "Powerful Virgin", a name otherwise used for Mary the Mother of Jesus. Her critics sought, without success, to have her dismissed from the Papal Household. She left Vatican service immediately upon Pius's death in 1958.