For Catholics, the pope is Christ’s representative on Earth and, as such, must be a male. Yet there is the mysterious legend of ‘Pope Joan’ who is said to have been the first, and only, female pope.
Nicknamed ‘Pope Joan’, legend has it that in the early Middle Ages this very talented Englishwoman disguised herself as a man, and rose to become pope around 850–53 CE. Calling herself John Anglicus, she is said to have spent many years in Athens where, disguised as a man, she became a talented scholar. Still disguised, she then went on to Rome, where she taught science and came to the attention of the learned men of the Church. She was said to be respectful and clever, and was eventually named as pope — a post she held for nearly 3 years.
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