{"id":19630,"date":"2013-03-13T16:01:02","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T20:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=19630"},"modified":"2013-03-13T16:01:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T20:01:02","slug":"the-legend-of-the-female-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/the-legend-of-the-female-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legend of the Female Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I was awaiting the appearance of Francis, the new pope — and listening to a few of television’s talking heads musing about the role of women in the Catholic Church — one of my gorgeous customers messaged me to say that I needed to do some female<\/em> pope rings. While rings aren’t in the offing, one of my earliest designs was a necklace style called the Papessa (“the Popess”) Prayer Locket, made in yellow, white<\/a> and rose<\/a> gold.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Papessa in 18K yellow gold with diamonds.<\/p><\/div>\n

The necklace was inspired by the legend of the medieval Papessa Giovanna, aka Pope Joan, who supposedly dressed as a man and became the spiritual leader of the Catholic church. This locket twists open …<\/p>\n

\"Papessa_YlwGold_Dia_A1__61217_std\"<\/a>

The locket shown open.<\/p><\/div>\n

… making it perfect for carrying a tiny prayer scroll, love note or good-luck token. One of my customers put an emergency Ativan in hers<\/a>, but when I made the necklace, I envisioned Pope Joan toting a piece of paper that said, “LOL, you guys! I am a woman!” But in Latin, of course.<\/p>\n

I designed this necklace after I read the novel Pope Joan<\/em> by Donna Cross<\/a>. I love jewelry with secret details and meanings, so I absolutely had to do a piece in honor of a woman with one of the world’s biggest secrets. Religious scholars are certain that Pope Joan is nothing but a myth, but, as Joseph Campbell<\/a>, the author of multiple books about mythology, wrote, “Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.”\u00a0 As a former journalist, I’m amused by that. As a jewelry designer, I can vouch that myth is often more artistically evocative than reality.<\/p>\n

When I first wrote about my Papessa design in 2007<\/a>, I was hoping to get around to reading the nonfictional The Myth of Pope Joan<\/a><\/em>, which dismisses the idea that Joan was real but explores what purposes the myth of Joan might have served. (Alas, I still haven’t read it. So many myths, so little time!) What does the myth of a female pope mean to you? And did you watch Francis’s introduction? <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I was awaiting the appearance of Francis, the new pope — and listening to a few of television’s talking heads musing about the role of women in the Catholic Church — one of my gorgeous customers messaged me to say that I needed to do some female pope rings. While rings aren’t in the…<\/p>\n

Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49,44,43,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-in-the-news","category-lockets","category-my-designs","category-necklaces","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t