Joan Anglicus

Joan Anglicus (818-855)
Pope of Rome...
The Vatican has many secretes. Perhaps its most carefully guarded one throughout history is this: that for 2 years, 5months, and 4 days, between 853 and 855 A.D, the Pope was a woman.
Somewhere between Pope Leo IV (847-855) and Pope Benedict III (855-858), Joan, in the lifelong guise of a man, rose to the highest seat in Roman Catholic Church. She rule 2 1/2 years and would have ruled longer except that her true gender was exposed after a love affair that resulted in her giving birth to a boy during a public ceremony.
For 3 centuries, the Catholic Church has attempted to dismiss her as a myth, although over 150 church historians between the 13th and 17th centuries acknowledge her short reign...
Things were going well enough until in the 2nd year of her reign, she fell in love with her private chaimberlain, a blond youth of 20 named Florus. They became lovers, and to her horror, Joan found herself pregnant. She hoped to escape the Vatican for a period, to bear the child in secrecy and be rid of it, but circumstances kept her confined.
Then one day during a ceremonial procession from St. Peter's to the Lateran Palace, while she rode a horseback, she suffered the pangs of premature childbirth. The procession was halted. She was lifted from her horse and fell to the street and before the eyes of an astounded mob a premature infant was produced among the voluminous folds of the papal vestments.
The crowd, upon realizing that it was not a miracle but in fact a deception became enraged. Joan was tied to the tail of her horse, dragged through the streets of Rome and back to the spot where she has been exposed; there she was stoned to death.

Just today i make some researches about her, but in the blogs/sites ive been, some says it was a myth, some says it really happened. Here are the links, but it is better to make your own research about this!^_^

wikipedia
socyberty.com
popejoan.com