Just for the record: I was not sleeping through all those years of religious education lessons, nor was I drifting off during my beloved European history classes. Nevertheless, I had never heard of the Papessa Giovanna (Pope Joan) until I moved to Rome, into the same neighborhood where the only female Pope’s secret is said to have been discovered and where she is to have been buried. According to the legend, in the 9th century a young English woman disguised herself as a man, taking the name Johannes Anglicus, and became a monk. In July 853 A.D., with Papal elections...
