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An almost purely male domain - this is how one imagines the Vatican, the center of world Catholicism.

There are women here only in serving functions, mostly as housekeepers for the male dignitaries, without exception.

This is not entirely true, however, because four women are also buried in St. Peter's Basilica, the center of the extraterritorial papal state on the Tiber in the middle of Rome.

In addition to currently 148 popes.

The Augsburg historian Martha Schad is a specialist in forgotten women in history.

She already portrayed Stalin's daughter, Hitler's spy and the powerful whisperer of Pope Pius XII.

- Sister Pascalina.

Another coup: Queens without a land, almost constantly in exile, their gender lines all ending with their death.

In this baroque painting, Mathilde von Canossa conjures Pope Gregory VII to undo the ban on Henry IV

Source: Wikimedia / Public Domain

"The Popes loved them" is the telling title and initially leads to false assumptions.

Because they were not lovers of the respective Holy Father and certainly not his children, although there were some of them, especially in the Renaissance period.

The women also held no ecclesiastical offices and had no saintly life to show.

Mathilde von Canossa (1046 to 1115) even had the reputation of a "feared warrior", as Hans Maier said when presenting the book.

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Christina of Sweden (1626 to 1689), the daughter of King Gustav Adolf who converted to Catholicism, did not shy away from murder herself.

But her hearts flew to her in Catholic Rome as the “living trophy of the Counter Reformation”.

A cardinal with whom she was related defied her last will and arranged for a splendid burial.

Christina of Sweden had converted to Catholicism

Source: Wikimedia / Public Domain

Charlotte of Lusignan-Savoy (1444-1487), also known as Carlotta of Cyprus, lost the battle for her rightful inheritance as Queen of Cyprus to her scheming half-brother.

Abandoned by her husband, utterly impoverished and humiliated, three popes took her in turn and honored her with a royal funeral in St. Peter's Basilica.

And finally the fourth, Maria Clementina Stuart (1702 to 1735): the one with the “saddest fate, but the most beautiful tomb,” as Martha Schad writes.

The Polish princess married James III, who had been driven out of England.

The relationship resulted in two sons, but it was not a lucky star.

Maria Clementina fled to the monastery twice, losing out in a dispute with her husband about the right upbringing of the children.

Often ailing, she died when she was just 32 years old.

The funeral was as bombastic as if a Pope had died.

"When she died, the eyeballs of the Catholic Church wept," says an obituary for the last titular English queen.

Carlotta of Cyprus lost a power struggle with her scheming half-brother

Source: Wikimedia / Public Domain

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The life paths of the four women lead through eight centuries.

Their biographies are about power and rebellion, piety and betrayal, poverty and waste.

A world historical event is connected with Mathilde and her ancestral seat between Milan and Bologna, which was then considered impregnable.

Also on their intercession, Pope Gregory XII raised.

in 1077 the ban against the German King Heinrich IV after his "Canossagang" on.

But the peace did not last long: 13 years later Heinrich, now emperor, moved again to the Apennines;

this time not to repent, but to storm Mathilde's fortress.

But the conquest was suddenly thwarted by fog.

Mathilde's body was only brought to St. Peter's Basilica 500 years after her death.

Urban VIII had them convicted, inspired by the desire to have a special burial place built for the “most famous dead in Italy”.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's statue shows the Margravine in a triumphant pose: in the right the scepter, in the left the Peter's key and the papal crown.

The marble relief on her sarcophagus captured the famous scene of Heinrich's kneeling in Canossa.

Maria Clementina Stuart was actually a Polish princess

Source: Wikimedia / Public Domain

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For almost 30 years now, the freelance historian Schad has published her “women's stories”, with which she became a pioneer.

The work of the Augsburg-based author is gradually being rounded off.

Schad reveals that she still has one project: the 140 statues of saints on the parapet of the Bernini colonnades around St. Peter's Square, 40 of which are female.

You should ...

Martha Schad: “The Popes loved her.

The royal women in St. Peter in Rome "(Verlag Langen-Müller. 224 pp., 22 euros)

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This article was first published in 2018.